sarahschwab | ə-blog

August 8, 2011September 12, 2012

We made it to Bern!

Our accomplishment for the weekend: taking the whole family on the train into Bern. That required several smaller accomplishments like getting my passport pictures for my train pass, buying train passes for me and the kids, and getting the whole family to the train station on foot at a reasonable time.

Once we got to the city (only 8 minutes on the express train), we walked through the old town to one of Bern’s best known tourist attractions: the bears. The city (and Canton) of Bern is named after “the Bear” and displays a bear on its red and yellow coat of arms. So, for many years there has been a bear park (“Bärengraben”) in the city that houses three bears. The best part of it is its location and beautiful view of the Aare river and the old town.

On the way there we walked quite a long way through the weekend outdoor markets, past the beautiful old church (Munster), the city’s clocktower (Zytglogge), and under the arcades past many high end shops. The kids are conditioning their Swiss walking legs, and they did great. But, after lunch by the Bärengraben and climbing up and down about a hundred steps around the bears and down to the river, we decided to take the tram back through town to the train station. We were home for nap time, and spent the rest of the weekend relaxing at home. But we can officially check off one more item on our to do list: visit the city of Bern (check)!

August 6, 2011

Living and Learning

In our first five days, we haven’t gone further than a couple of kilometers from our house. The reasons (or excuses) are that I haven’t gotten my train pass yet because it requires passport pictures, which I also haven’t gotten yet. Also, the train station is just far enough away to make it a challenging, though doable, walk with all the kids. Ideally we would all have bikes by now, which is how everyone gets around here, but the bike store is closed until next week because the owner is on vacation, and Emily and James don’t know how to ride bikes without training wheels anyway. So, at this rate, we won’t be going anywhere for several more weeks.

Fortunately, within our very small radius, there are two creeks, a swimming complex, the kids schools, and several neighborhood families with kids. Also, our shipment from America came, so the kids have at least a few more toys to play with. After over a month with just the items in their backpacks, it was like Christmas in August.

Our first week in Switzerland has been a balancing act of failure and success. If you define failure as doing something wrong, then that happens several times a day. In fact, the first time we do anything, we inevitably do it wrong. For example, every time we go to the grocery store, which Joe and I have been taking turns doing each day, we do something wrong: going through the express lane with way too many items, bringing up more items than I had the cash for (they don’t take our credit card), not having the right coin to unlock the grocery cart, etc. (Incidently, since we don’t have bikes yet, we also have to carry all of our groceries home over a kilometer in our backpack and grocery sacks, which makes me feel like I did a 250 rod portage in the Boundary Waters!)

We have also failed to get Swiss phones, internet access, or a bank account, some of which require a residence permit that is going to take a couple of weeks to secure. I got lost with all three kids trying to walk to a nearby playground. Oh, and I fried my hair straightener by plugging it into the wrong electrical converter.

Compared to our failures, our successes seem trivial. But you have to count all the small accomplishments that we take for granted back home. Like understanding a conversation with neighbors on the street (check), cooking a meal with no recognizable measuring tools and instructions in a different language (check), and figuring out the school supply lists (check).

The kids start school a week from monday(!) and it feels like we won’t have done anything. But, then again, we have moved to a new country, and I guess that counts for something.

August 3, 2011August 4, 2011

We have arrived, again!

In case we didn’t make this clear two weeks ago, traveling with three young kids is extremely challenging. We had a difficult day of driving in an overstuffed rental car filled with kids and luggage (and kids sitting on luggage). We made it to Bern, Switzerland and stayed one night in a crowded hotel room with one kid on the floor, and one two-year-old that doesn’t know how to fall asleep without his pack-and-play (which was wrapped in several layers of plastic with several other items and strapped to the top of the car — oops). No one got much sleep, tempers flared, and I wondered several times, “why are we doing this again?”

However, the next day, we drove to our new home in the town of Münsingen. After going through everything with our landlord, a 32-year ex-pat from Connecticut, we were even more overwhelmed and exhausted. But, we had arrived!

There are several things about the house that are fantastic. The yard is a beautiful, relaxing space surrounded by lush greenery, flower gardens, a koi pond with a bridge, candle-lit patio, two fire pits, a bench swing, a ping pong table, fresh raspberries and black berries, and a vegetable garden that has already been planted with lettuce, beans, tomatoes, rhubarb, radishes, and peppers. It will be a bit of work to maintain, but we love spending time and eating meals out there. The house also has plenty of space, including a guest suite with a room and bathroom that closes off from the rest of the house. So, if anyone is thinking about visiting us, come on over!

Also, our neighborhood is great. We are near a creek and in walking distance from everything we need. There are lots of kids here, and Emily and James immediately befriended a family across the street. We were fortunate to arrive on August 1st, which is Swiss National Day. The first night, though we were too exhausted to try to go to the celebrations in the city of Bern, we learned that the tradition for most Swiss families involves setting of lots of fireworks in the streets. We joined the families outside our house where the kids all had a blast setting off over a hundred fireworks of all sizes. The next day, the kids played together again, and we all went to the local swimming pool complex in the afternoon. Even though it has only been a couple of days, we love our new home. Already the challenges of getting here seem like a minor hurdle compared to the incredible experiences ahead of us.

NOTE: No pictures this time. We won’t have real internet access until we get our residence permit, which may take a while (I’m sitting in a Swisscom store right now). But we’ll post when we can.

July 28, 2011July 22, 2012

Branching Out

James is spinning the mythical (and touristy) brass ring in the fence - make a wish!

We finally broke free of our confinement and visited two of Bavaria’s larger cities: Nürnberg and Augsburg. We saw so many sights in just two days it could make for an extremely long post. So, instead of giving the background story for each one, I have just included a lot of links so you can find out more for yourself if you are interested.

Kristina’s car was still in the shop on Tuesday morning, so we hopped on a bus in Riedenburg, to a train in Saal, and another train in Regensburg. (I told you we are in the middle of nowhere). Trains are still exciting for the kids, and great for us too when we aren’t carrying 350 pounds of luggage!

At the main train station (Bahnhof), we met Carmen, another Amity intern who spent the year in Milwaukee and who lives near Nürnberg. She was our guide for the day. We ate lunch at a fantastic outdoor café in the old town. Then, Carmen suggested that Joe and I visit the World War II museum at the Documentation Center on the Nazi Party Rally Grounds. Nürnberg was the center of the Nazi party during Hitler’s reign, and was also home to the Nürnberg Tribunal after the war, so it was fascinating to see. Meanwhile, Carmen and Kristina took all three kids to a toy museum (Spielzuegmuseum) – thank you girls! We met up afterwards in the Hauptmarkt by the central fountain and made our way up to the city’s Imperial Castle. We arrived just as it was closing, but we walked around the castle grounds and enjoyed the view. Then we descended back toward the train station, and stopped along the way at another outdoor café for dinner. We got home very late that night (almost 11:00pm) and crashed in bed to rest up for another big day.

On Wednesday we drove (in the newly repaired van) to Augsburg to visit Thomas, another friend and MGIS Amity intern. He took us to König von Flandern for lunch, a microbrewery restaurant near the Rathausplatz where the kids got to see some beer brewing in process. With some food under our belts, we climbed the 260 stairs to the top of the Perlach Tower in Augsburg’s central square. Then, we went next door to see the town hall (Rathaus), including the stunning golden hall (Goldener Saal). From there we walked through old, quaint little streets (Gassen) to the famous Augsburger Puppenkiste. To be honest we had never heard of it before, which I think offended Thomas a little, but the museum was very cool. Some of you may remember seeing their programs on t.v.?? This time, we wanted to get home at a reasonable time, so we took the tram back to Thomas’s apartment, got the van, and drove the hour and a half back to Obereggersburg.

I have to say that this is the best way to travel: visit someone in their home city and let them show you around. They know all the major attractions as well as the cool little areas that you would otherwise miss. And they know how to get around, so you don’t have to worry about getting lost. Thank you Carmen and Thomas for being our guides to these great cities!

Nürnberg and Augsburg Photo Gallery

July 25, 2011July 22, 2012

Home Sweet Home?

Our big plans for the weekend were dashed when Kristina’s car (our only method of transportation) broke down. Instead, we were effectively stranded in our little town of Obereggersberg.

Trying to stay optimistic, we went out on Saturday morning for a hike through the trails in the forest of the Altmühl valley (Naturpark Altmühltal), which encompasses the entire area. With a two-year-old along, our “hikes” are extremely slow and short, but we did manage to find and catch a frog and a toad and observe some beautiful scenery. In the afternoon, we again went over to the Schloss Eggersberg, our neighborhood castle, with the intention of actually going inside. There is a small museum there, but it appeared to be closed. So we just walked in through the restaurant and went up the first set of stairs we saw. The castle has been turned into a hotel, though it didn’t seem to have many guests in residence. No one bothered us, so we explored the whole place, up to the 4^th story theater that used to host a lively music festival (about 35 years ago).

It was still early, and the restaurant wasn’t seating for dinner yet, so we walked down the road to where it stopped and looked over the Altmühl river and valley. There were also ruins of an even older castle there, which proved, along with the beautiful landscape, to be a great backdrop for pictures. So, we did an impromptu photo shoot, and played and climbed until it was time for dinner. We went back to the castle restaurant for a delicious dinner and congratulated ourselves on making a great day out of nothing.

That night, we talked to Kristina and found out that her car would be out of commission until Tuesday. Having now explored every inch of the two short roads that make up Obereggersberg several times, we were completely out of ideas of what to do. So, we all had a lazy Sunday. The kids watched quite a bit of German television, including a “SpongeBob Schwammkopf” marathon on Nickelodeon Germany, which we justified by saying that it would be helpful for their language comprehension. The older kids and I crammed into Kristina’s brother’s sports car so we could get out of the house for at least a couple of hours to eat lunch and enjoy some live music at the Fuchsgarten.

Today is day three of our immobility. Joe took the older kids on an extremely long walk to Riedenburg to get some groceries and have lunch. They walked about 8km round trip and were gone from 10:15am to 2:30pm, and they did a great job! Meanwhile, I stayed home with Henry, and cleaned the apartment.

Which brings up the question of “home.” We often say “It’s time to go home” when we are going back to our apartment here. The kids have declared that our house in Milwaukee will be referred to as “home home” and our current residence (in Germany, Switzerland, or wherever) can be called just “home.” We do what we can to bring many of the qualities of “home” with us wherever we go, including our family, our routine, eating meals together, etc. And certainly life follows you wherever you go. Things like laundry, dishes, learning manners, and other responsibilities are always with you no matter what your surroundings or other experiences are. So, regardless of the language or food or other differences, we still have somewhere, or something, we can call “home.”

A few pictures of Obereggersberg.

July 23, 2011July 22, 2012

Kids, Kelheim and Kloster

For the past two days we have spent a lot of time in the nearby town of Kelheim. We have actually been there once before to visit the Befreiungshälle. But, Joe discovered a cute blue train called the Ludwigsbahn. We told Henry we were going ride on Thomas the Train and he loved it! We ate lunch in the center of the Kelheim old town at another outdoor café.

That was enough for one day, so we decided to return on Friday to ride the boat down the Danube river (Donau in German) from Kelheim to Weltenburg to visit the abbey there. The Weltenburg Kloster is the world’s oldest still functioning abbey brewery, established in 1050 A.D.. In case you aren’t familiar with this, it is very common in Germany for monks to brew beer to raise money. The abbey has a beautiful church, museum, a hill with a spectacular view of the Danube gorge, and a great restaurant to serve their guests (and their beer!).

They also had a riverside outcropping made out of the smoothest, flattest, most beautiful rocks. So what did we do? What else? We threw them into the water of course. Henry was in heaven with rocks as far as he could see. And these rocks were so perfect Joe could skip them countless times. It was hard to drag ourselves back to the boat to return to Kelheim and back home.

We got lots of great pictures. You can see some of the best ones in our gallery.

July 21, 2011July 22, 2012

No day off for mom

Wednesday was cold and rainy all day. The kids were a little toured-out anyway, so we decided to take the day off. We stayed home and watched some German television, played games, and just hung out. It’s nice to be in a place long enough that we don’t feel obligated to do something every day. I even stayed in my pajamas all day long, though I did that for a very specific reason.

You see, is isn’t very common here to have a dryer. So, when I do laundry, I have to hang it out to dry. I realize that much of the world does this all the time, but for me it is a new experience. My options are to hang it in our bedroom, in the attic, or outside (if it’s not raining). Then you have to wait for 1-2 days before they are really dry. We have no microwave either, so when I wanted to eat the leftover käsespatzle from yesterday, I had to warm it in the oven for 15 minutes, and even then it was still cold. Oh, and also, there is no dishwasher and we have barely enough dishes to get through each meal with five people. Dishes have primarily been Joe’s job. Although staying home all day also meant eating all our meals here, and using every dish, bowl, saucer, and whatever else we could put food on. We are getting used to a slower, more rural lifestyle here.

Up until now, it has really felt like a vacation (and it has been). But today it started to feel more like we are really living here, with all the little things that go with that.

July 19, 2011July 22, 2012

Beyond Riedenburg

We ventured a little ways out of our small town home to see some more sights. On Monday we visited the Befreiungshalle (Hall of Liberation) in Kelheim, Germany. It is a monument, built by King Ludwig I of Bavaria, to German Independence and victory over Napoleon. The kids climbed all the steps up to the entrance and then the additional 165 steps up a tiny winding staircase to get to the upper level. Whew!

That afternoon we visited Burg Prunn just outside Riedenburg, our third castle if we are keeping track. It is a stunning fortress castle up on a cliff above the region. We got a private tour, as we were the only people there for the last tour on a Monday. This was good since the kids were a little restless learning about Jesuits and life in the 1600’s (most of which we didn’t understand anyway). The next day when we were preparing to go out, they complained, “Do we have to go to another castle?”

“Nope” we told them. We went to the Tropfsteinhöhle Schulerloch, a cave in the rocky cliffs of Riedenburg. The parking lot was at the bottom of the hill, so we had to hike about a kilometer up to the cave opening. This is a European phenomenon that I don’t understand. Can’t you build a road up the hill and put the parking lot closer to the actual destination? Throughout the hike to the cave, the kids referred to it as the “bat cave,” although we learned that the bats only live there in the winter, so they were again disappointed. Although the sound & light show in the middle of the tour was pretty cool.

Tuesday night we decided to do something for the kids, so we ate dinner at the Fuchsgarten, an open-air beer garden in Riedenburg. They have a playground for the kids, as well as a petting zoo with goats, pigs, a donkey, and a pony. They loved it! They even made friends with some other local kids and spoke German the whole time. We ordered them käsespatzle and told them it was like German mac & cheese. They disagreed and didn’t eat much of it. Oh well, you can’t win them all!

Check out more pictures of our excursions here.

July 18, 2011July 19, 2011

So what’s in Riedenburg?

We probably would never have ended up in this particular corner of the world if it weren’t for our host daughter Kristina (who lived with us for the past year in Milwaukee). It’s hard to find on a map, and even harder to get to. But, it turns out that Riedenburg Germany is a beautiful little Bavarian town on the Altmühl river. Our stay is made even more enjoyable with Kristina as our companion and tour guide.

Our sightseeing began in earnest on Saturday. We started the day at Schloss Rosenburg, the castle at the top of the hill above the town of Riedenburg. This is the second castle we’ve visited, and we’ve only been here for two days… and we’re in the middle of nowhere! It seems like you can’t throw a rock without hitting a castle around here. There are actually two words for castle in German. “Schloss” (or Schloß) is a palace where someone of some rank lived at some point. “Burg” is more of a fortress castle for protection of an area. Many of these castles have been converted to other things. Schloss Rosenburg is now a “Falkenhof” which is a museum and rescue center where they house and train large birds. We saw the falcon show during which extremely large falcons, eagles, vultures and other birds flew scarcely inches above our heads.

From there we walked through the woods down to the town of Riedenburg. We ate lunch at an outdoor café, and strolled down to the river where we treated ourselves to some ice cream. On the way, I stopped in to greet the baker who brings us fresh rolls every morning. In German, I talked to them about mixing up the rolls that we get so we don’t just get the same thing every day. I’m not exactly sure what I asked for, so we’ll se what shows up on Monday morning!

We headed home for naptime, after which Kristina took us to St. Agatha Lake, where people swim and play. It’s like a beach except without sand. The opposite side of the lake has stunning cliffs, which lit up in the sunset behind us. The older kids swam like fish while Henry sat at the edge and threw rocks into the water, his absolute favorite thing to do. It was a perfect day.

Sunday was more relaxed. We played at the Speilplatz in the morning, where we have invented several moves on the zip line including the “tornado” and the “daddy big swing.” We had lunch at our local castle next door where there was live Blasmusik (traditional German oom-pah music; a quartet with tuba, accordion, trumpet, and clarinet) in the outdoor beer garden. Then we headed to the Kristallmuseum and Fasslwirtschaft in town. The crystal museum features the largest natural quartz crystal grouping in the world (7.8 tons). Yes, there are random tourist attractions here too! Oddly, the crystal grouping was originally found in Arkansas.

We went to Kristina’s parents’ house where we had our first reliable Internet access. While Joe and I got caught up on our computers, her parents fed and entertained our kids with German TV and their pet quails. (We now have 15 more quail eggs to eat with our fresh rolls). They also sent us home with some German games and children’s books. Riedenburg is great, but the best part is having such sweet and generous friends here. Check out some more pictures from the weekend in our gallery.