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 4th 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.”