Kids | 3 | ə-blog

October 1, 2011March 31, 2013

Lunch on the Alpsee

Sarah is going to kill me for posting this; I’m supposed to be writing about our time at Oktoberfest, but when something occurs like this, you have got to get it down before the moment passes.

We have moved on to very southern Bavaria where we planned to take the kids to see Schloss Neuschwanstein. The morning was decorated with horse-drawn carriage rides, a castle tour, and a lovely wooded hike, and will be covered in another post. We had decided to go to lunch on the Alpsee, and found the perfect little café with outdoor seating. We ordered delicious food, ate and drank in the shadow of King Ludwig II, and decided to let Emily and James go play on the shores of the lake.

Then we noticed Henry had a look on his face. This kind of look, when given by a two-year-old, is often accompanied by a smell. And this was no exception. Only parents will understand what I mean when I say that, what we noticed next indicated that the situation had gone from an unpleasant inconvenience, to an all out emergency. Henry had boiled over.

I raced him upstairs to the woefully unequipped bathroom by the idyllic shores of the Alpsee, stripped him naked and proceeded to bathe him in one sink while washing his clothes in the other. After a heroic effort of cleaning and drying him, he found his mother outside the bathroom with a warm jacket and lots of hugs. I proceeded to clean the walls, floors, and counters and we took him downstairs (strategically washing stairs along the way).

Back on the terrace we found, to our surprise, that we had forgotten about Emily and James. And now, they were nowhere to be found. Sarah scoured the shoreline while I raced Henry back to the hotel. Fortunately the cleaning lady found me in the hallway and told me that my two kids had come home early and she let them in.

I found Emily and James in their room playing with their new Lego sets, and they told me what happened to them. Emily said they thought we were coming down to the water to throw stones with them, but when they looked up, we were both gone. They talked about it, and decided to walk back to the hotel to find us (a very smart move on their part), but were stopped, “by a group of black-haired people who just wanted to take pictures with Emily.”

Asian tourists. They can’t get enough of blond children.

September 29, 2011September 25, 2017

Getting to Legoland Deutschland

No one ever said traveling with kids was easy, and we have had our fair share of challenging travel days. Our kids have really gotten to be very good travelers, but our trip from Munich to Legoland felt like Chevy Chase trying to get to Wally World.

We left our Munich apartment at 10:15am, and took the bus to the Ostbahnhof (East train station) because it went straight there and we figured it would be less crowded than the central Hauptbahnhof. Joe got our tickets for Günzburg, Germany, home of Legoland Deutschland. Estimated time of arrival: 12:50

Unfortunately, when we got the itinerary for our tickets, the first leg of the trip took us to the Hauptbahnhof. Oh well, no problem. We grabbed some food for breakfast and went over to the S-Bahn (Strassenbahn or street level tram) to the Hauptbahnhof. The train’s departure time came and went, but the train didn’t move. The conductor was making announcements in German that we didn’t fully understand until a friendly passenger told us that there had been a derailment at the Marienplatz, and that the train would be delayed for quite a while. It was recommended that we take the U-Bahn (subway) to the Hauptbahnhof instead.

This was a little frustrating, but we gathered our things and walked quickly through the train station to the U-Bahn platform. After waiting nearly 10 minutes, the train pulled into the station so completely packed with people going to Oktoberfest that there was no way we could fit our family of 5 with luggage. A few other people pushed past us to get on, and the train left the station, leaving us standing on the platform, and taking with it our last chance for catching our train at the Hauptbahnhof.

A nice gentleman suggested that we take the U-Bahn in the opposite direction for a few stops in order to get on the right train before all the other people got on. So we did. And about 25 minutes later we were back at the Ostbahnhof, only this time we were already on the train packed with people going to Oktoberfest. About 5 stops later, we squeezed our way out of the train at the Hauptbahnhof having long since missed our train to Günzburg.

Joe figured out when the next train was, and we settled onto the platform for the 30-minute wait. Amazingly, this train was a more direct route, and even though we had wasted an hour trying to get to the Hauptbahnhof, we would only arrive at Legoland 30 minutes later. Our new estimated time of arrival: 1:20pm. We boarded the train, and the kids got out their books satisfied that we were finally on our way to Legoland. The rest of the train ride was uneventful, even enjoyable.

They announced that the next stop was Günzburg, and we started collecting our things again. The next few minutes are a blur. There was a stuck train door, too many things that didn’t get repacked, kids that were a little slow… Joe was taking off the luggage while I corralled the kids, and as he came back on the train to grab more bags, the doors slammed shut and the train started pulling out of the station. We were banging on the doors, pushing buttons and yelling “Stop!” knowing full well that there wasn’t anything we could do, as the whole car of passengers looked on in horror. Emily finally lost it when she saw her suitcase sitting on the platform as we raced away toward the next station.

Each member of our family handles stressful situations in a different way. There was some yelling, some crying, some whining. It was like we all went through all 5 stages of grief, from anger through acceptance, in about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, a well-meaning passenger and a ticket-taker helped us figure out a plan. We got off the train at the next stop and went over to yet another platform to board a train going back the other way. Remarkably, when we got back to the Günzburg station 40 minutes later, our luggage was sitting on the platform right where it had been left.

Now we just had to get from the train station to Legoland. But, when Joe checked the bus schedule, he discovered that the Legoland bus doesn’t run for several hours in the middle of the day. So, we waited at the taxi area for about 15 minutes before a taxi came and dropped us off at Legoland Deutschland at 3:05pm.

Legoland is just 120 kilometers outside of Munich, but it took us 6 hours to get there. (That’s an average of 12mph). And for the next two days, I had this song stuck in my head:

September 29, 2011March 31, 2013

Munich with munchkins

Swiss schools have a three week Fall break that started last weekend. Not only do the kids have off of school, all adult groups also take three weeks off, and even some family run shops are closed while the whole country goes on vacation. So, like all the other Swiss families, we took off for a trip in southern Bavaria. First stop: Munich, Germany.

It is Oktoberfest season in Munich, and we were told it would be crowded and touristy. But, as we have thrown a home-town Oktoberfest party for the past several years, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to go to the real thing! Amazingly, we found a cute, affordable apartment in the city for the family. We packed up our liederhosen and dirndls and we were ready.

Our apartment was right by a bus stop, so once we were settled in, we hopped on a bus to explore the city. We all got pretty good at navigating the Munich public transportation system, to the point that the kids knew which U-Bahn (subway) stops we got off at to make our transfers and when to push the button on the bus to let the driver know we wanted to get off. The first night we went to the Odeonsplatz, a pretty and posh area of the old city. We ate dinner in an outdoor café and reacquainted ourselves with wonderful German food. Then we walked down Theatinerstrasse to the Marienplatz, Munich’s famous central square, to show the kids the major landmarks of the city.

In the mornings, we took the kids to some less crowded, more peaceful areas of Munich. We walked through a small part of the huge Englischer Garten where we watched surfers on the Eisbach river, talked to the ducks by the Japanese Tea House, and ate lunch at the beer garden by the Chinese Tower. The next morning, we went to Max Weber Platz, which is another nice park by the Isar river, where we found a spielplatz and just played with other local families. After working up an appetite, we went to the Augustiner Keller for lunch. It is Joe’s favorite place on the planet. This was his third visit, but his first time eating outside in the beer garden, and he said being there “made his soul feel good.”

Tuesday afternoon we took the family to Oktoberfest. We got all dressed up and headed over to the festival grounds on a very crowded train full of people wearing trachten. In fact, this is probably the one place you actually look out of place if you aren’t wearing liederhosen or a dirndl. At the festival, we bought the kids the traditional heart-shaped gingerbread cookie necklaces to wear, which they promptly ate. We rode on many rides,including the large ferris wheel, the haunted roller coaster, the little train (for Henry), and the grand finale –

Oktoberfest Kids – the swings that spun and rose up several stories in the air. Everyone had a good time, though for being a beer festival, we didn’t have a single beer. But not to worry, we fixed that later.

We got a lot of great pictures in Munich. Check out the gallery here.

September 15, 2011March 31, 2013

Playground Fun

Recently, the kids and I went once again to the local playground or “Spielplatz,” and I realized that playgrounds are another expression of cultural differences. Some friends of ours who are doing a fellowship in California posted a picture on their blog of a great playground on Venice beach. It is a large version of a standard American playground, made mostly of plastic, with bars that are the required width so no one will fall off. Things like merry-go-rounds and see-saws have all but disappeared from American playgrounds, presumably because it was too dangerous for kids.

Here, going to a playground is like going back several decades in a time machine. They are all made mostly of wood, rope, and metal. There is always a stand-alone slide and a sandbox. If you are lucky there will also be one or more of the following: swings, a see-saw, a zip line (James’s favorite), a merry-go-round, rocking horse, and something I call the spinning rope of death. The last one is like a giant rope ladder with rope swings attached to it that is wrapped around a pole. Adults or older kids run around spinning it as fast as they can and try not to get hit by the kids who are clinging to the ropes for dear life. The kids think this is a blast!

Another thing I’ve noticed is that there are no training wheels here. I realize my children were very late to learn to ride two-wheel bikes. But, I haven’t seen any training wheels at all here. In fact, come to think of it, I haven’t seen any tricycles either. Even little kids who are 2 or 3 years old ride on “first bikes” that are like mini-two-wheelers with no pedals. They push themselves along with their feet, learning first to balance before learning to pedal.

As I’ve mentioned before, ALL of the kids either walk, bike or scooter to school by themselves from Kindergarten on. I’ve even seen entire classes of kids riding their bikes behind their teacher to go on a field trip. Not to generalize too much, but there seems to be a little less coddling of kids here than is typical in America. Here’s some shots of my kids flinging themselves around at the Spielplatz and having a blast.

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September 11, 2011March 31, 2013

What a weekend

We didn’t leave the country (like two weeks ago) or go up to the mountains (that’s next weekend), but we squeezed a lot into the last couple of days. It started on Friday afternoon when I took the kids to Europe’s “World of Dinosaurs.” It’s a collection of life-sized dinosaurs in an outdoor setting that happens to be one town over from us right now. We biked there and enjoyed getting up close and personal with dinosaurs, and even being paleontologists for a while.

On Saturday we spent the day in Bern. Grandma and Grandpa Brezinski are on a 15-day tour of Switzerland. Saturday was their day in Bern, so we met up with them and their group for a tour of the city and a nice lunch outside the Bundeshaus (the Swiss capitol building). Unbeknownst to me, there are several outdoor markets in Bern on Saturdays, and there was also a large political rally going on right on the Bundesplatz. So, the visit was a bit chaotic and too short, but it was wonderful to see my parents here in Bern. (We will welcome them to our home in 9 days after their tour.)

It was a hot day, so after lunch we parted ways and I took Emily and James to the Marzilibad, the outdoor public pool complex in Bern. It is a beautiful setting, and we had a great time splashing in the pools to cool down. I’m not sure why, but it seems like none of the pools in Switzerland are heated. The weather here isn’t exactly tropical, so the water is FREEZING! I can understand the Aare river being cold since it flows from a glacier, but the kiddie pool should be warmer than 70 degrees! But we had fun alternately chattering in the pool and laying in the sun.

Sunday, we stayed in Münsingen for a family day. It was a clear morning, so we hopped on our bikes and went on another family bike ride. We rode on the bike path between Münsingen and Thun with a gorgeous view of the mountains ahead of us. All together we rode about 5 miles and got passed by many more serious bikers than ourselves. But it was beautiful and, for us, quite an accomplishment.

In the afternoon, we went to see the Dampfbahn Aaretal, the local mini train run by a club of train enthusiasts. There are a couple of small-scale authentic steam engines, and the kids got to ride the trains around the fairly extensive track. Henry, our biggest train fan, loved it! The rest of us thought it was pretty cool too.

I’m a little sore, pretty tan, and very tired! Also grateful to have new and exciting things to experience with our family. Check out more pictures from the weekend in our gallery.

September 8, 2011March 31, 2013

Life without a car

I haven’t owned a bike for 12 years. I had one in college, but I rode it so infrequently that it rusted to the bike rack, had the wheel stolen, and was eventually cut off and hauled away, presumably by the Evanston police authority. Much to my father’s dismay, biking was just never really my thing. Even when I didn’t have a car, I preferred to walk and/or take public transportation.

Now, I find myself again in a town with excellent public transportation and no car. But this time, I have a 2-year-old with me all the time, and I have to do grocery shopping for a family of 5. On top of that, Swiss people are big bike-riders. There are literally hundreds of bikes parked near the Münsingen train station, and many hundreds more in the city of Bern. Needless to say, after our first week here, I got a bike and shortly after that a trailer for Henry to ride in.

The bike is a cheap (by Swiss standards), used bike that Joe calls the “Peewee Herman bike.” It squeaks when I pedal, the front brake shrieks like a banshee so I try to only use the back brake, and it has only two gears (down from at least three that it used to have). It also has a front headlight that is powered by the wheels, so when it is engaged, it makes a whirring sound like a quiet electric sander. Lets just say, you can hear me coming!

After the first trip I made to the grocery store, I was actually sore. It was a literal “pain in the butt.” The next day I got back on the bike and I thought, “You have got to be kidding me!” Ouch! But, Joe assured me that the pain would eventually go away. Henry also took some time adjusting to his new mode of transportation. He would struggle getting in and out, and whine and cry during the rides, especially the first couple of times I put groceries next to him in the trailer. But, I pressed on.

I have to admit, that it is good exercise. We happen to live at the lowest point in town, near the river. So, going anywhere is slightly up hill. But, coming back home is a breeze. This is great when I’ve got a trailer with a 40-pound child and another 50 pounds of groceries, and I barely have to pedal to get them home. However, it’s not so great when I show up for music class or church sweaty and out of breath like I just came from the gym.

As we mentioned before, the kids got bikes and learned to ride them without training wheels in just a couple of days. Now they are experts, just like the other Swiss kids. I have ridden all around town with Henry in tow and Emily and James following behind. This includes riding on roads with cars and crossing bridges to get to the grocery store, train station, swimming pool, dentist, playground, etc. Not, that we haven’t had our share of mishaps (The scrapes and bruises on James’s legs were proof of that for a couple of weeks), but all in all we get around really well. Fortunately, bikers (and pedestrians) in Switzerland have the right-of-way most of the time. Because there are so many bikes, it is a high priority, so cars have to wait for bikes at intersections, even wait to pass a bike on a narrow road.

Joe finally got his bike this week. His is another cheap, used bike that didn’t even work when we got it. Fortunately, Joe has become quite the bike mechanic. After replacing the chain and the tires and tuning it up a bit, he rode it to the train station this morning with all the other business commuters riding bikes in suits with their briefcases strapped to the back. And, last night we went on our first official family bike ride. Even though I didn’t have a bike in Milwaukee, and Emily and James could never really get very far, this is something I’ve always wanted to do. And last night, we finally did it! We took the whole family to the edge of town, past many swiss style homes, and by an open field with a beautiful view of the mountains, trains rushing by and even a few cows and sheep.

I have to admit, I actually enjoy getting on my bike now. I won’t be doing long distances any time soon (sorry dad!), but it is no longer a pain in the butt, literally or figuratively. Even Henry has learned to enjoy his new ride. Most of the time, when we pull into our driveway and I get off the bike he says, “That was a great ride, mom!”

September 2, 2011March 31, 2013

Making Friends

Emily went to her first birthday party this week. Emily and James have had friends here in Switzerland since the day we arrived. There were kids playing outside on our street, and instantly they became friends. They speak German to the other kids, though not at a very high level. But it doesn’t really matter… they’re kids. They just ride bikes together, or play with toys, and *bang* they’ve made a friend.

And now they both go to school where there are plenty of other kids to play with and befriend, so that after only two weeks, Emily was invited to a party.

With adults, it’s completely different. Once you are out of college, making friends, even in my home country, isn’t easy. And Swiss people are notorious for sticking with their childhood friends. Introducing any new friends to their social group takes an extremely long time (i.e. longer than the year we are here). On top of that, the language barrier is a much bigger deal for adults. I can get along in a conversation okay, but I get lost fairly quickly once we are past the basic introductions. And, with adults, talking is extremely important if you want to get to know someone. There is no playing or school-like environment that brings people together. Adults don’t really *do* much, except sit around and talk. So, if you can’t talk very well, it’s kind of a problem.

The other night, Joe and I were watching Seinfeld and there was a bit about this very topic. It was good to laugh about it. But seriously, I’m not sure we’ll get invited to anything the entire year – at least not by anyone who doesn’t speak English.

August 26, 2011March 31, 2013

It’s the little things

Looking back on the past couple of weeks of school, work, and life, it’s hard to come up with any big things to write about. But, a few of the little updates are…

Emily lost two (yes two!) more teeth in the past couple weeks. It turns out the tooth fairy also comes to Switzerland. Emily’s smile looks like a checkerboard. James, who is 6 years old and hasn’t lost any teeth yet, is quite jealous. We tried to explain to him that Emily doesn’t have many more teeth to lose, whereas he has a goldmine in his mouth that is sure to start paying off at some point.

Henry no longer needs his precious nookie. The plan, as recommended by our dentist, was to poke a hole in it and gradually make it bigger until its functionaly was lost and he gave it up on his own. Joe didn’t quite catch the gradual concept, and basically mutilated it right off the bat. It caused a couple of painful bedtimes, but it worked. It’s yet another thing that shows what a big boy Henry is becoming.

We got library cards at the local library. The kids were starved for new books after a month of reading the small selection we brought from home. The collection of English books is pretty sparse (even in the “big” library in Bern), but we immediately maxed out our limit of books we can check out. Emily was thrilled to find quite a few new “Rainbow Magic” fairy books, even though they are in German. I am still impressed that she can read chapter books in two different languages!

We attended some community events, including a festival at the swimming complex, a 5K run (didn’t run, just watched), and a marching band parade. I also found the Catholic church, though the mass was in Swiss German, so I only understood about 50% of what was said.

So why write about the little things? You know how, when you see other people’s kids only occasionally, they seem to grow so much? Yet, when you see your own kids (and yourself) everyday, its a lot harder to perceive the growth. It’s all the little things everyday that are adding up to big changes.

August 22, 2011December 13, 2012

Just Keep Swimming

For those of you who don’t have young children, this title is a quote from the movie “Finding Nemo” that I thought was appropriate for this post for two reasons. First, in the movie when things get difficult, Dory (the blue fish) says, “Just keep swimming, just keep swimming…” I’m certainly not complaining, but lets just say that the first week of school was an adjustment for everyone. Secondly, we have had some of the most beautiful and hot weather of the summer. During a whole week of sunny, 80-degree days, we spent a lot of time in our swimsuits.

We went one afternoon to the local, outdoor swimming complex. We have been there twice before, but this time the kids found some friends from school to play with, which was great. We spent another afternoon at our little creek down the road. It’s small and shallow, but still cool (okay, cold), clean and refreshing. There are rocks for throwing and a rope ladder and swing.

Over the weekend we took an day trip to the town of Murten. It is a fantastic, medieval town a little west of Bern on the Murtensee (Lake Murten). We swam in the lake, which was some of the warmest water for swimming that we’ve found in Switzerland (though that’s not saying much!). We also played at a park near the lake, watched the ducks and the fish, walked through the town, and Emily and I walked along the top of the ancient wall enclosing the old city. We forgot the camera, but I snapped a few shots with my iPhone.

On Sunday, we slapped our suits on once again, and headed to the Aare river. We biked further down the crowded trail along the river past many beautiful outcroppings until we found one that was not claimed and had some nice shallow places for the kids to swim. It’s beautiful, and fun to watch all the swimmers and rafters floating down the river. Joe jumped in again (this time without his glasses) and glided a little further down the river, enjoying the view of the blue water flowing off to the horizon with mountains in the background.

We’ve been told that this kind of weather is rare in Switzerland, so we plan to continue enjoying it as long as wek can!

August 16, 2011December 13, 2012

Back to School

Today was the first day of school for Emily and James. I got to accompany Emily to school for the first period of the day. The classroom had small desks with students’ names on them, hooks out in the hall for jackets, a chalkboard at the front, and generally could have been mistaken for any elementary school classroom in America, or anywhere else. However, there are a lot of differences, some small and some huge, between school here and what we are used to back home.

For starters, the calendar is very different. With a short, 6-week summer break, school starts in mid-August and goes through the first week of July. But, there are several long breaks throughout the year: fall break (3 weeks), winter break (2 weeks), sport break (1 week to go skiing), spring break (2 weeks), and Whitsun week.

The grade levels are different, too. Last year, Emily was in 1st grade and James was in Kindergarten (K5). Here kids don’t start in elementary school until they are 7, so Emily is in 1st grade again and James is in Kindergarten again at a completely different school dedicated to Kindergarten. There isn’t much academic learning in Kindergarten here, mostly just playing and working on social skills. So, the curriculum is going to be fairly easy compared to what the kids have done back home. However, since everything is in German, including talking to their friends, their brains are constantly on overdrive and they are sure to learn a ton outside of the curriculum itself.

There are no school buses in Switzerland. Children have to get to school on their own, and in a small town like Münsingen, that means walking. So, there are throngs of kids walking the streets in the morning without supervision. In fact, James and all the kindergarteners were given reflective sashes to wear while walking to school and Emily was given a bright yellow hat that says, “Back to School! Watch Out for Kids!”

There are no school lunches in Switzerland either, so all of the kids walk back home at 11:50am for lunch. And then, depending on their age, they walk back to school again by 1:30pm for the afternoon periods. However, in Kindergarten and 1st grade, school is only mandatory from 8:20-11:50am. Emily and James both go back to school on Tuesday afternoons, and Emily goes back every other Monday. But, that means my kids are home all afternoon 3-4 days a week!

Then there are all the small, interesting differences that I started noticing when I went shopping for school supplies last week. The primary item Emily needed as far as school supplies I am used to is called an “Etui.” It is a small, highly regulated zipper container with pencils, eraser, sharpener, colored pencils, ruler, markers, ink, and a few other things. All the kids have one that they use from 1st grade through high school. Then, there were some other things on the list, including a toothbrush, water bottle, “house shoes,” black ballet-style slippers, and a gym bag with gym clothes. We bought everything not knowing exactly how it would all be used, especially the odd assortment of shoes.

On the first day of school, we learned that children do not wear “outside shoes” into the classroom. They change into their “house shoes,” which are usually slipper-like shoes with rubber soles that are kept at school. Also, they change into gym clothes (even in 1st grade!) and they don’t wear tennis shoes for gym, but rather special black slippers. And, every other week for gym, Emily gets to go swimming!

All of these differences are neither good nor bad, they are just different. My only hope is that my kids have a good year and, as I wrote on Emily’s “school spiral project” this morning, “I hope you learn a lot, make many friends, and have fun!”