Munich - Part II

We had such a fun time in Munich at Oktoberfest, we decided to go back for Columbus Day weekend to explore the area outside of the beer tents. We arrived on Saturday morning, after the approximately two hour drive.

The Germans mean business when they parallel park.  I am not entirely certain how this person got his car wedged in here!  That or these two nitwits in front of and behind him totally blocked him in.  Funniest thing about these pictures?  We came back a few hours later and the car was totally gone.  The other cars, still in the exact spots.

Of course we need to go eat before we do anything.

 What did we order here?  I dunno.  Some beer.  Some meats. Some cheeses.  Probably some pretzels. 

We walked around the English Garden for a bit, and it was pretty empty and pretty cold outside.  So we stopped for some yummy treats.   You can see Grant looks pretty darn cold.  But there was a playground and other kids here and they really had a good time.

And more beer.  Get ready, because over the next few years, you will probably see a LOT of beer pictures!

Me with the Chinese Tower in the background.

The kids made some friends on the playground and we drank giant beers.  I'd say that was a good day.

Then we walked down by the stream, which is a tributary to the Isar River.  These clowns wanted to be silly!

This was an interesting sign that I saw on one of the businesses in Munich.  There's been a mass exodus of refugees from places like Syria and Iraq and Germany has mostly welcomed them with open arms, including the government.  I have a feeling that will change at some point, of course, but for now, this made me feel good to live in a welcoming country.

The tower at the Deutsches Museum, where we were heading for a little science and technology.

Natalie loves weather like her mommy, and we found this cool weather station outside of the museum!

A certain little boy was STOKED to go into a section of a Lufthansa jet that was in the museum!

There was a fun little children's play area, and Grant had fun climbing on this fire truck.

Then I made him look cute in a guitar.

From there, we went to the world famous Rathaus Glockenspiel on the Marianplatz. The top half of the Glockenspiel tells the story of the marriage of Duke Wilhelm the Fifth (you know, that guy who founded the Hofbrauhaus!)  The bottom half shows a famous dance that was thought to have brought life back to Munich after a terrible plague.

We timed it right and we were able to see the Glockenspiel dances!  The kids thought this was cool.  I think anything is cool that makes them stop fighting for 10-15 minutes.

Here they are, in all their glory.

Afterwards, we went over just off the Marienplatz to the St. Peter's Church.  They house the skeleton of St. Mundita, which was really weird.  But the church itself was really pretty and light.

There's a tower you can climb for a small fee with nice views of Munich!  I think the kids (ie: Natalie) wanted to die. So. Many. Stairs.

Next stop, the world famous Hofbrauhaus!  Yippee!

We were seated with some people from Alaska, ha ha.  They were a lot of fun and we ate and drank with them.  The band walks around and plays for the tables and the kids loved that.

Mmmmmm.  More beer.  It will be amazing if I remember any of the next five years.

HB!  The original!

These are my kids, ages 5 and 8, singing and dancing at the Hofbrahaus in Munich.  Cause we take our kids to the Hofbrahaus.  Scoring points right and left over here.

After our lovely dinner, Todd and the kids headed home and I met up with my friend from Auburn, my sorority sister Carla!  So fun that she was in Munich too.  We had the best time, and even met up with some football players (they wouldn't admit that though ha ha) from the States!  It was nice to have a bourbon drinking buddy for the evening!

The next morning, we ventured out to the Olympic park area.  The Olympic were held in 1972, and were famous for the Munich Massacre where 11 Israeli Olympic atheletes were murdered.  It's interesting because this whole area, to me, is SO Cold War.  Lots of concrete, not a lot of character. 

The kids at the top of the Olympic Tower.  Please note that I am nowhere near the railing there, as my fear of heights had me somewhat paralyzed.

Natalie thought it was crazy that we could all write on this wall. 

They're running out of space on the wall here, so thank goodness Todd is tall enough to do some atmospheric graffiti. 

Happy second birthday to my niece Greta!  I graffitied Munich's Olympic tower for her. Cause I love her THAT much!

A little boy hanging out with a duck at the Olympic Sea.

So there are a ton of squares with handprints of famous people and who did I happen to find among them?  My all time favorite band (read: I'm totally obsessed), R.E.M!  I posted a pic of this on Twitter and tagged Mike Mills and he RETWEETED IT!  I was so excited!  I'm such a music nerd!

Munich - OKTOBERFEST!

After yesterday's deer debacle, we decided there was NO WAY we were missing Oktoberfest this year, our first year in Germany.  Or any year, for that matter.  So we hopped on the DB and took the train down to Munich.  There is a little town nearby us called Neuhaus an der Pegnitz (about 15 min away), and they have a convenient little train station.  You can get to Nuremberg from here, and then on down to Munich pretty easily.

Of course, the train was packed and the kids had to sit on the floor and we wound up standing from Nuremberg to Munich.  But it wasn't bad as it's about an hour long.  

Thankfully we brought the kids tablets and they didn't mind sitting on the floor too much.

Once the masses cleared out a bit, we managed to get seats across the aisle from each other.  And of course, we had to buy a little something off of the beer cart because... well, because it's Oktoberfest!

I was taking this selfie to try to show the insane amount of people on the U-bahn and this guy behind me totally photobombed me.  I loved it, so I kept it!

No, I am not wearing a dirndl.  But a lot of people were!  It was barely lunchtime and people were singing and drinking and carrying on as if it was midnight! This was in the big, main tent.

What?  You want a cinnamon sugar pretzel for lunch?  Well, when in Munich!  I'm just continuing to score points for the parent of the year award.

More points.  Chug!  Chug!  Chug!  Go Daddy, go!

Not to be outdone by daddy, the kids said I wasn't nearly as good as him. I blame it on the fact that this mug of beer must have weighed 12 pounds.

The kids were DYING to go on the big ferris wheel. I'm terrified of heights, but it was too good to pass up.  What views!

Interestingly, and somewhat luckily... the weather the day before (when we were supposed to be there) was gorgeous. Sunny and mild.  And apparently EVERYONE came out to Oktoberfest that day.  We heard it was really crowded but the weather on this day (the very last day of Oktoberfest 2015) was not as pretty.  It was gray and cooler and we did get spit on a little bit.  But we are pretty sure that kept the crowds away and it wasn't too bad.  That just meant we didn't have to wait long for the rides!

Not sure if you can see Natalie and me on the coaster, in the front row.  This was her first ever upside down coaster!  She was still too small for some of the other, bigger coasters, which was a disappointment because the kid loves coasters.  (Grant hates them at this point).  We had a blast! 

He doesn't like roller coasters, but he gives a big thumbs up for helicopter rides!

Here Natalie and I go down the big slide!  They closed it right after we went because it started to drizzle. Phew!

When it started drizzling again, of course, we went back into one of the beer tents.  Singing, dancing, lederhosen and beer galore! Can't wait to go back next year!

Remember That Time We Hit a Deer?

Oh boy!

So we signed up with the Outdoor Rec folks to take the bus down to Munich to go to Oktoberfest with the kids.  We were totally pumped.  

We had to get up pretty early to catch the bus at Graf.  We thought this would be a good trip to take because it was a day trip, we were going somewhere where we would be drinking and didn't want to drive, and the kids could collapse on the bus on the way home.  So it seemed like a really good idea.  I'm sure everyone had fun.

We never made it because on 470, on our way to Graf, Todd hit a deer with the rental car! He hit him pretty hard, but it only seemed to hit the passenger front side of the car.  Of course, in Germany, they have very strict laws about what you are supposed to do when you hit a deer.  You have to call the police and then let them know where you are.  Todd was totally panicking, the kids are sobbing in the backseat, upset that we can't go to Oktoberfest (never mind that we just killed Bambi!), and I'm totally laughing!  I don't know why but it was very funny to me.  Of COURSE we hit a deer.  We are the Griswolds, after all.

So Todd calls the police and they tell him that if he can drive the car, he needs to come to the police station in Eschenbach.  

We took some pictures.  Yes, that is a tuft of hair sticking out from the car frame.  Ewww.

I probably don't want to know what that smeared stuff is on the side of the car.

You can see the front passenger side light was totally cracked.  We didn't make it to Oktoberfest this day, unfortunately.  Instead, we spent the day over at the MWR, getting our money back for the trip (which they graciously gave us back) and playing around on the property which was a lot of fun!  

Climbing on daddy in the nice October sunshine.

The lake there (Dickhaeutersee) is really pretty.  This is just outside of the gate on the base, believe it or not. They have canoeing, camping, basketball courts, playgrounds, climbing structures and even a restaurant here.

Hello Army helicopter! Even in this pretty setting, it's hard to forget where we live.

The kids (well, mostly Natalie) enjoyed climbing on one of the climbing structures.

This came in the mail for Todd, ha ha.  Totally unrelated to the accident.  We found out much later that we apparently damaged the frame of the rental car and it was a total loss to the rental car company!  We felt so bad.  Thankfully we paid for the $0 deductible!

We Got a House!

Well that didn't take long!

We have only been in our temporary house for a week!  Some people are in their temporary housing for months before they find a place.  We went into the housing office on Friday and the woman who works there, Heidi, said, "I have a place and you MUST take it because it is the best house we have in the system.  You will LOVE it."  Ok.  It's totally against our better judgement to take the first (and only!) house we look at... but for real.  This place is sweet.

First... it's a sign.  My second favorite flower in the world (blue dendrobiums are tops!) are hydrangea.  And look!  My very own and my very first hydrangea bush! 

The kiddos found a swingset in the backyard.  Immediate joy.

DUUUUUDE.  What.  Look at this kitchen. 

This is the biggest kitchen I've ever had.  Maybe this whole "learning to be a cook" thing won't be so bad!

Outside, Todd found that we have hand pump wells!  Isn't that cute?  I don't know why, but I find that extremely funny!  There are two of them on the property.  Dietmar (our landlord) said they really only should be used for watering the lawn and such. I don't think I've ever seen a working pump, much less my kiddos. 

Look at these beautiful windows in my pantry.  Sadly, they are in my pantry.  But wait, I have a pantry!?! 

The rental car in the driveway (and Dietmar's Jeep in the background ha ha).  I have a big driveway, and even a garage underneath! 

Our living room.  Complete with ficus tree (left), large storage piece (center) and stone fireplace (right).  Sweet.

Our back patio.  It's so... German! 

The front door might be my favorite part. I just love rounded doorways.

The babes in front of our house.  Now if only our HHG would arrive so we could finally make this a home!  Thankfully... that's what temporary Army furniture is for!

Not QUITE sure how I'm going to use this oven, however, I know I'm going to require some competence.

Afterward, we went out to dinner.  We found a little pizza place in Grafenwöhr and had a nice dinner.  But afterward, it's apparently customary for the staff to bring you shots of some kind of after dinner aperitif.  Usually that would be amaretto (seen above) or Limoncello.  OK!  I won't say no to free alcohol!  Thank you very much, Germany!

Grant Lost His First Tooth!

Here I am again. Mom of the year.  I picked Grant up from school (current school:  Netzaberg Elementary) and his teacher, Mr. Keough greeted me at the door with a little baggie. What?  Inside that tiny baggie was a tiny tooth, belonging to my 5-year-old. 

I. Did. Not. Even. Know. It. Was. Loose.

Oh.  Wow buddy!  You lost a tooth! 

He went on to lose two more after this in the coming weeks!  But seriously folks, isn't he the cutest?  Can't wait til he doesn't have any top front teeth!

Nuremberg, Germany

Our very first adventure!

Nuremberg is only about 45-50 minutes away from us, so we decided to venture out and check out the nearest big city to us.  It's Germany's 14th largest city (ha!) but of course, it's famous for the Nuremberg Trials after World War II for crimes against humanity.  Even though the city was first mentioned in 1050, it was severely damaged in WWII, and unfortunately, a lot had to be rebuilt. 

But it's Germany.  And we live here. And there's beer. 

First, we made our way to the main square, the Hauptmarkt.  Just off the square, which had a sort of farmer's market going on, is Die Frauenkirche, which was built in the 1350s.  It has a neat Männleinlaufen (mechanical clock) that rings at noon outside.  I love pretty stained glass!

More beer, you say?  Ok!  It was kind of chilly so we got some hot crepes with Nutella and bananas to go with that. 

Next we made our way up to the Nuremberg Castle (or the Kaiserberg Nuremberg). 

It's super steep going up there, and of course, all three of my children felt the need to give me a heart attack and play on the super high rocks.

Alas, we made it to the castle and no one fell off of the rocks.  Natalie looks thrilled to be there.

Goofballs up near the gate of the castle.

We went up to the top of the tower and I caught this cute pic of Grant looking out over Nuremberg.

Triple Willy?  I'd rather not! Thanks though!  This was in the bathroom at the castle.  Because who DOESN'T take pictures of the toilet paper roll in medieval castles!?!  Right!?!

Looking down from the tower.  I love the wood framed houses here - it's so German!

Doin' 190 kilometers per hour (118 mph!) on the Autobahn in the rental car!

 Bliss.  Lebkuchen (gingerbread) from Nuremberg and a nice tasty beer.  Can't wait to go back because there's so much more to see!