Pottenstein, Germany (Take 2!)

My friends Marbury and Christina wanted to beat the heat (and entertain our kids) by heading up to Pottenstein one day to enjoy the mountain coaster, alpine slide, paddle boats and the natural swimming pool. I'm in!

First things first though. I wake up to find this.  I'm like... what is in your hair?  And Grant says, "Natalie put it in there!"  It was silly putty. And I had to cut it out.

I just love Pottenstein!  There's only the red and yellow (mountain coaster and alpine slide) but we still have a blast!  Christina is terrified of heights more than me, so I went a few times with her son Sebastian. Yay, more rides for me!

Marbury got to go with Sebastian too!  Here they come!

Then we went over to the Seecafe for lunch (come on, you know I'm gonna order currywurst every time!) and the kids all wanted to paddle in the Schöngrundsee.  It's a good way to get hot and sweaty before going over to the Felsenbad pool!  But the water is super clear.  There's plenty of fish to be spotted if you look closely!

Marbury and Christina took Natalie, Conner and Sebastian and wound up in the trees. HA!  I told them it was time for their workout and they needed to paddle hard to get out!

The boats are paddled by foot/leg power and of course, these two silly boys didn't have long enough legs to paddle us around.  Not to mention, the steering wheel was all messed up.  Right was left and left was right!  Patrick gave up after a bit and let me take the wheel.

THE funniest thing happened while we were out in this boat.  Grant is looking back and says, "Ummmm, there's no water coming out of the motor!"  TOO FUNNY!  He definitely was remembering the issues we had in Pop Pop's boat! (And for the record, no... there wouldn't be any water coming out of a foot paddle boat because there IS no motor!)

This is so peaceful and idyllic.  Of course... I had two little boys on my boat, so not so much...

Patrick is adorable. He gives me the thumbs up (right after he was dabbing of course). 

I love my big boy!  He was so cute. He knew Sebastian LOVES sharks, so he wore his Jaws shirt!

Oh my word, I'm not sure I've sweat that much since I was in Florida.  Let's hit up the Felsenbad across the street!  The Felsenbad is, according to Wikipedia, one of the most beautiful open-air swimming pools in all of Germany.  It's a natural swimming area, but the filtration system is man made. It's built right up to the rocks!  Sebastian, Patrick and Grant are ready to swim!

Natalie doesn't mind cold water, but Marbury still had to convince her that she had to get in!!

It was 90 degrees F on this date, so the pool actually felt nice. I mean, I didn't get in of course. You know I don't get in unless it's 87!  But the kids had fun!  Patrick and Natalie (the two oldest) were jumping off of the big kid area for the longest time.

After we changed, we stopped by the town of Pottenstein for a little Kuchen und Kaffee, which is not only a German afternoon tradition, but since it was also Christina's birthday, we HAD to celebrate!  The kids got ice cream, and we all ate this amazing marzipan cake.

Happy birthday, Christina!  Hooray for Kuchen and friends!  Love you, gals!

Fünf-Seidla-Steig (Five Brewery Hike), Thuisbrunn, Germany

Todd and I both had seen people talking in various social media spots about a brewery hike.  One in particular we had both seen was a 10k, five brewery hike known as the Fünf-Seidla-Steig.

There's two ways you can do this... you can start the hike at the beginning, hike the 10k while visiting the five breweries, and then hike it back again, for a total of 20k.  Ok, I don't need that much beer and there are three sets of little legs that would not enjoy this.  The other option is to take the train from Weißenohe up to Grafenburg one stop. Then get on the bus in Grafenburg (Bus 226) and take it to Thuisbrunn.  Get off the bus, follow the crowd down a small hill and you'll be at the first brewery, the Thuisbrunner Elchbraeu - Gasthof Seitz.  Then you make only the 10k hike back to where your car is. The other option is to start in Weißenohe and then call a cab or an Uber to take you back to your car.

This might be one of the reasons they tell you to take the bus to Thuisbrunn and hike back.  To start where we ended would mean a 150 meter change in elevation in the first two kilometers!

We just followed the crowd off the bus!  Funny, we followed one couple who had to be in their 80s.  

Look!  There they are in front of me!  Here we are at stop one!

Mmmm. My first frosty mug of beer of the day.

They have a pretty cool game you can play (beer drinking for adults!) where you can get a stamp at each of the five breweries.  If you get all five stamps, you get a discount on the Fünf-Seidla-Steig mug at the end!  (No, it's not free, sadly). 

This is the Burgruine Thuisbrunn.  It was built before the mid 1300s. This little town, however, has been around since about the year 1000.

We started the real hike just after our beer at the Thuisbrunner Elchbraeu.  It was a pretty easy hike, although definitely long at 10k.  (OK, not long for adults but long for kids.  My kids did great though!)  We passed a little Christmas tree farm on our way!   

First we marched through some tall brush.

Then the path began to clear.

And finally, nothing but beautiful fields!  We stopped just before this to eat our little picnic lunch.  We had to stand up, so it might have been good to bring a picnic blanket (I have a lovely one from my friends Magnus and Pamela in Scotland that I use all the time but didn't think to bring).  There aren't a lot of spots to stop and rest along the way.

There's about a kilometer between brewery one and brewery 2, the Brauerei Hofman. 

This was probably my favorite brewery of the five.  Most of the beer is the same, but this place had a fun band!  Everyone was singing and happy and it was lots of fun!

Bier zwei.

From there, you venture out into the longest part of the hike.  It's over 4km to the next brewery, but you're rewarded with three breweries in a very short span.  The hike there isn't too difficult, unless you're Natalie who thought it was too steep.

Big boy had fun on the hike.

Yay!  We made it to another pretty field!  While most of the hike is paved (or at least a rocky path), there are a few parts that lead you right through the grass.  Make sure you have your bug spray on!  Don't want to pick up any tick hitchhikers!

Ahhhh.  Finally bier drei. The third stop is the Brauereigasthof Lindenbräu in Grafenburg.  Thankfully, they had free bathrooms!  We had our beer, got our stamp and we were on our way.

The sign to the third brewery.

Grafenburg was super cute, as are all Franconian Switzerland towns.

What's that you say?  Beer stop number vier? Freu Dich Brauf... translates to, "Look forward to it!" Brauerei Friedmann is where we enjoyed a radler at the hottest part of the day.

These gangstas were apparently very much looking forward to it.

At some points along the way, things got a little dicey for us.  We got a bit confused as to which way we should head.  But thankfully, there are these little "Frankenweg" signs all over the place to help guide you. Look for the signs and you shouldn't have any problems!

Walking to the last brewery, we passed this on a house.  Todd and I could only assume this was one of the houses in Game of Thrones, and these were carrier pigeons. 

It was a beautiful day and such a lovely hike.  Note on the closest tree on the right, you can faintly see the little Frankenweg sign!

Nothing but fields and blue sky. 

I love how the landscape changes.

Hurry up, Mommy!  We have to be the leaders!

Oh Germany.  Your naughtiness never ceases to amaze me.  Kids, turn away!

Todd was SUPER stoked that we found the fifth brewery! The fifth brewery is the Weißenohe monastery brewery. 

Hi. My name is Colleen and I've had five beers today.  Also notice there is a massive vespa (wasp) problem in Germany so we cover our beers with coasters ha ha.

We did it!  We got all Fünf auf dem Stempelkarte.

Here it is!  The coveted mug!  We are the big winners, folks!

Eat your salads before you get a treat. No exceptions. Actually, Grant loved this salad!

Promised popsicles at the end of the road.  Ahhhh!

Cool, we get to drive through this building on the way home!   I can't even imagine the planning board and public works meetings that discussed this issue!  "No no, we MUST widen the road here!"  "Over my dead body. You'll have to go THROUGH my house!"

Now THAT is a nice end to a beautiful day!  We crashed HARD this evening.  Until next time, Fünf-Seidla-Steig!