Learn German

The Town Hall is called the Rathouse.

The Mayor is called the Burgermeister.

Need to refer to without giggling and thinking of ancient McDonald's commercials in the US.

Konig Ludwig's Schloss

Sunday we drove about 30 minutes to Ludwigsburg to visit King Ludwig's Palace. Built by King Frederick in the 1700's when he decided to move the summer palace from Stuttgart, he died the year it was finished and never lived inside. King Ludwig lived here with his wife, Elizabeth Matilde. 

We had a visit from a Flat Stanley from Colorado Springs, so he came along with us for the tour. He was very good tucked inside our pockets. 

This is the queen's bedroom. To the right of the bed is the "toilet chair" which has a chamber pot underneath. 450 rooms and conspicuously absent from the palace are bathrooms... apparently the King and Queen went as the urge called them and didn't even have to leave the room they were sitting in. Baths occurred just once a month. P-ew!

At the end of the tour was a children's dress-up museum for putting on period clothes and pretending one is a little King or Queen of the time. Ethan and Alex took some prodding, but in the end they loved this part. So did our little princess. 

1982, Here we Are

Just so you know how we pass out time on a friday evening...

it's sitting on our borrowed couch with popcorn made on the stove (because we don't have a microwave), watching the original Star Wars, on VHS on a 13 inch TV.

Waldenbuch Hallenbad

I experienced the Waldenbuch indoor pool this morning as the kids were off school for ice/snow and Ric started work late- so I walked up the hill 5 minutes to our local pool. Only 120 Euro for a one-year pass (about $150); totally worth it- especially considering that Ric and I can share a pool karte since they don't check id or cards at the door- there's an automated turnstile that records your schwimmkarte.

So I guess I missed the *lap swim* this morning... I think 7:30 am is the Single Mingle for the over-70 folks. There was a lot of floating around, aimless gentle breast-stroking, and chit-chatting amongst the elders. Not sure where to actually "swim," I followed a couple young people trying to get in some "laps," weaving in an out of the crowd, breast-stroking only since you had to pay attention to who was in front of you, or swimming across the pool into your space. (Sandy, I wish you were there to laughe along with me at this pool scene.)

After about 15 minutes, the crowd seemed to leave the wall and there was a length of pool completely open where I could eke out some overhand swimming... save for the 3 ladies in the corner chatting... I would just swim a length, going around them at the corner. This went on clearly for about 5 laps: me back and forth in this small lane next to the wall, completely out of everyone's way, and everyone out of my way; a nice arrangement, save for the 3 ladies. Once done chatting, did they move from my small space and permit me to continue *getting exercise*? NO. They actually started swimming the old-lady breast stroke IN MY LANE SPACE! There's an ENTIRE POOL with people doing the old-lady breast stroke. THEY CAN'T MOVE OVER A SMIDGE FOR ME TO SWIM??? (Insert sound of hand smacking forehead.)

At this point I give up swimming and head to the showers and locker room. In my towel at the locker I start to dry off (nudity here) to then get dressed. Until I notice the man's shoes under the locker next to mine. *Thankfully* reminding me that lockers are co-ed, before the man actually turned the corner. I found a dressing room instead.

So, a couple of lessons learned:
a) swim earlier when the rest of the town is still putting on slippers and drinking Ensure
b) don't actually undress in the locker room.

Liosh, the Boy Next Door

If you can't tell, Sequoia is the one laying down. Liosh (pronouced Ly-oshe) is the Kuvach next door. He and Sequoia are remarkably similar; he's taller and leaner. Ingrid and Waldo, the owners were very excited to find out there was a girl dog for him to be friends with.

Sequoia, telling Liosh for the umpteenth time, "Get off my rear end!!" Liosh is a lover, not a fighter.

They rolled around in the snow for a long time this day, Liosh mostly trying his hardest to get a little doggie action. Sequoia likes him, but not in that way; she's hoping they can still be friends.

The next day I took a walk with Lioshe's Ingrid in the woods close by our house. Liosh was much more well behaved on the walk, though he certainly does try and try again to convince Sequoia that he's the man for her.

Goethestrasse #5: Our New Home

Our new home. It's a very new home, only about 2 years old. Built with several others just like it across the street from us. Contrast with our neighbors, whose house was built after WWII by the Great-Grandfather and has remained in the family ever since.

Our kitchen is very new and modern... including dishwasher and large(r) size fridge. Fridge not in picture.


Our small, borrowed TV on which the kids can watch DVDs. We did buy a used AFN box which gets the military TV channels with TV from the US, but we have not hooked it up yet. We've lived without TV entirely for about a week and decided we weren't in a rush to get it. The kids have been playing nicely with what *little* toys, books, and drawing materials they have. We decided to keep TV out of the equation for now.

The spiral staircase spans 4 floors. There's a downstairs with 2 bedrooms and a large laundry. We think they'll be the playroom and the storage.

Our 1 full bathroom on the second floor. Fortunately, it's on the larger side.



The main floor with our borrowed, Army closet furniture. At least it gives us a place to sit for dinner each night. Looks mostly like a Dr.'s waiting room. This Dr. is waiting for his stuff to come... about another month.

And the view from the top floor down 4 floors. Yes, sound does carry in this mostly empty place with not enough furniture and no rugs or floor coverings. You can speak in a normal voice in the kitchen to the person on the 3rd floor and they can hear you just fine! But the hard floors are nice... we have radiant heat which is nice on the tootsies in the morning in the tile bathroom.

I'm yearning for our stuff to get here to fill it!

Fasching Parade in Tubingen

Today after picking up Dog, moving more stuff to our house and getting a little organized for our move tomorrow, we headed down to Tubingen, about 15 minutes further south for a Fasching Parade.

Fasching is the German version of Mardi Gras... it occurs throughout most of the month of February with various parades and celebrations in different towns. Clubs and groups get together, dress up in wildly elaborate costumes, and parade through town. They throw confetti (or just dump it on your head, as happened to Alex) and candy. They're also very tricky and in your face. Some will take babies away and carry and dance with them. Some wrestle and play with the parade-watchers. One costumed person tied a girl's feet together and then carried her far from her friends; she had to hop back! It's very spirited and unlike parades in the US. Of course my camera was left back at the house, but see this footage for an example .

After the parade we headed back to the house for more organizing and then out to dinner. We still had the dog so Ric brought her in with us (we've heard that German restaurants are friendly to dogs); and the crazy thing is that she was welcome! We got a room in the back (acceptable for dogs as well as for kids) and the waitress even brought "wasser for der hund" - she got her own water bowl and slept politely under the table during the whole meal.

Tomorrow is moving day and we'll be off-line for a few days. I'll post pictures of the house when we get back up and running.

I Wish...

At lunch on Sunday...

Alex: "I wish I could go in a time machine and go back in time."
Me: "Really? Why?"
Alex: "I would go back 5 minutes ago when my hot chocolate was full so I could drink it again. "

At dinner on Tuesday...

Evelyn: "I wish my head was in my stomach. So I could eat that German candy again."
Alex: "I wish I could see my brain."

Do you see what I have to deal with here?

Landesmuseum Pirate Exhibit and Throw Daddy From the Train

We headed out in Stuttgart this weekend, despite the gray, overcast, and freezing cold day.  Since all the days are pretty, much just like that, it's hard to argue that the day is "too cold" to go out. If you follow that rule, you're in all winter it seems. 

So we went to the Alteschloss (the Old Castle) which houses a museum that had a Pirate Exhibit.  And these guys do it right. Dangerous rope swinging across the ocean between two ships:

I'm all for fun on the edge of maybe falling or getting "bruised", but I think I was the only parent wincing when one boy thought to put his head into one of the ropes from which to hang and cross over. Fortunately he decided that his hand works better. 

So in addition to the museum, we had lunch out... after merely one week our German is improving... we can vaguely make out menu items and take our best guess to order. We know how to say "Excuse Me" and "Thank you" and "I would like..." as well as "Have a nice day" so we're managing to get by.  And we have found that if our first waitress does not 'sprechen sie English', there's another one that can to help us out.  And we love, love, love the bakery on every corner. The kids do too as they peer into the glass at the beautiful variety of cookies, cakes, pies, and other sweet treats. It's hard not to get something!

But for sure the highlight of the day was getting stuck on the subway (aside: our piece of junk car is indeed: a piece of junk- it's in the shop and we're on the hook for about 350Euro=$450, so we took the bus/train system this day).  Anyway, there's an apparent disadvantage to not understanding the train recording when it tells everyone to get off the train because it's at the end of the line. The stupid Americans on board, not really paying attention, don't get out of their seats. They figure this is just a popular stop.  So late in the day on a Sunday, we wind up on a Subway car in the middle of a tunnel. Stopped. No emergency button, no emergency phone, no cell phone service.  It was like a bad B-movie. 

I'd like to say that Ric, nimble as he is, crawled out the exit hatch above, traversed the train to the front, adeptly swearing to someone in charge that his vulnerable family was still on the train! Except that didn't really happen. We got out. My "stuck on a train story" is not actually that exciting since it did start moving again in about 20 minutes and went to another stop.  But those were some nervous 20 minutes in the dark tunnel.

But we did manage to get on the bus, on the train, and back to our hotel. A successful day.