Blumen Fields

I love the Blumen Fields by our house the flowers change with every season and not only do you get to enjoy the beauty every time you drive by, but you can stop and take some of that beauty home with you. Yesterday we walked to a field close to us and picked some gladiolas. It was full of  sunflowers and dahlias as well. Then you put your money in the box .60 per gladiolus stem.

We laughed because they had a cup of knives just sitting out so you could cut the stems... can you imagine a cup of knives just sitting out with NO supervision... the danger!
I would love to bring this idea back to Texas with us, but can a business model based on honesty survive where we live?

The Dragon Castle

No time to spare... fresh off of our return home complete with jet lag, Michael planned a trip to a local castle! How did he get the kids to participate in such an exhausting day? simply by telling them they were going to see a 40 foot dragon of course. If only things like dragons really existed some fairytale creature you could view from safety and as long as you were willing to travel far enough, it would magically be there. Alas life does not work that way but somehow kids are still willing to believe it does, and that's why there so great, they almost make you able to believe too! So we drove into beautiful country and hiked up a hill to see the remnants of a castle that had met its end long ago but the views from the once grand stones was amazing. Elijah even caught some wild lizards ... his first in Germany. After taking in the view and a bratwurst we drove down the mountain to a reptile zoo, an very odd zoo. It began by winding down a very creepy tunnel until you came to ..... a forty foot dragon!!! Sure he was made of stone but he was there waiting to come alive when we turned our backs on him. The rest of the zoo was a fairly good collection of lizards and snakes that the kids enjoyed. Then we went  up the hill to the newer castle Drachenburg with beautiful grounds someone was getting married in the castle chapel and releasing red balloons. The castle was full of history and had ebbed and flowed in a variety of different functions and losses through the years. It was a little too reconstructed for me and I much preferred Burg Eltz but it was still beautiful in its own way.... a great way to come back home to Germany.

on the hunt

no match for Elijah

Restaurant at the top

Oliver.....

Our 40 foot Dragon

the cave to the Dragon

Stella in the thrown ... she said she is no princess

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I think this is the car the couple getting married were leaving in

Brugge

It started out a little rocky but we made it to Brugge a favorite it seems in the expat community. On the way there the major highway was closed which left as weaving and winding an extra hour and half down Belgium back roads. (at least they were beautiful) When we got to the Brugge main station to park we had planned on taking a bus from there to our hotel but the woman at the information desk said "oh it's just a 20 min walk".... it was not a bad walk but wheeling our suitcases and bags on cobblestone streets was not the most fun!
 Our hotel apartment was right down town next to the market center, a great location. We still had daylight left so we started our chocolate, beer, waffle tour with the last remaining brewery in Brugge. The half moon, it was more of a museum than a brewery but the kids got to climb into a holding tank, so they were happy. After that it was endless chocolate shops and museums and of course your standard canal tour.... here is a photo tour

View from the top of the Brewery

I took this picture not of the horse but of my boys harassing yet another swan. They like to get them to the hissing point right before they try to bite their fingers off.

We went to see a Salvador Dali exhibit and I have to say we left a little unimpressed and creped out.

 



My artist is unimpressed

 

 

 

We took a tour of a hospital museum and the following is Michaels favorite picture, probably because of his love of children. The next one is the architecture of our future house.... see me there learning...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

      The first day we came into town we saw the scariest looking street performer ever! and the kids talked about him continuously for the rest of the trip They did not want to do anything else but see who could conquer their fears and drop money in his pot. SO before we left we found him ..... Elijah boldly walked up, dropped money in his pot and began mocking him (shocking) I wish I had videoed it because he even drew a crowd mocking the demon. The bronze man jumped to scare him and he stood his ground. All while Stella and Oliver watched from a distance holding their coins. When it was Olivers turn he couldn't do it...... so we started walking away.  We didn't get more than 10 feet before the peer pressure was put on him by his loving siblings, before we made it half way down the block he wanted to turn around go back and face his fears..... The following is the picture of him and Stella running away right after the coin was dropped...but Elijah can never say they didn't go and that's all that matters!!

 

 

 

We walked up all 366 steps of the city clock tower.

 

 

 

Oh did I mention we saw Jesus blood in a golden vial!... the church would not let you take pictures of the actual vial but here is a poster of the priest walking it around the town the day we were there. The kids had lots of questions about the authenticity.............

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And then there was the food ......... Cheese Croquets, chocolate, Mussels, and waffles 

 

 Elijah wanted to try mussels .... he said they were great and Michael said they tasted like they came straight out of Lake Claiborne

 







Hamburger Pizza

On a recent trip we stopped at a Pizza Hut because well..... it was a Pizza Hut and we craved the familiar. Oliver and Stella went with the always dependable cheese pizza and Elijah branched out with a mushroom personal pan. Me and Michael decided to split a large Pepperoni but as the waitress started to walk away I called her back for a quick change to half pepperoni and half hamburger. How could I go wrong with Hamburger. If you have ever eaten out with me you know never to order what I order because it's always BAD.... how could this happen every time? When our pizzas arrived I knew I was in trouble when there were pickles on the pizza! It not only had pickles but the sauce was ketchup! with tiny hamburger patties all over it. So as my family enjoyed their basic but delicious pizza, I ate my ketchup covered hot mess. Some things do not translate and
now I know hamburger pizza is one.

Recent Acquisitions

On one of our recent trips to Holland we picked up a pair of wooden shoes... why not! I remember wanting a pair when I came to the Netherlands as a teenager and I also remember them being to expensive. This pair was only about 16.00 euros so now they are mine purely for decorative purposes I don't plan on wearing them around the house or anything.

 

We celebrated 12 years of marriage on Sunday and as a gift we got each other a set of German knives ( although Michael claims only I wanted them.) They are amazing, apparently I have been using incredibly dull knives for years and hacking my way through everything. I may accidentally chop my fingers off as I am so unfamiliar with a sharp blade.

 

 

 

and last.. as we were coming home from Koln yesterday I saw a basket sale on the corner in our town. So I jumped on my bike and road down to see what they had. They were packing up and the guy said he would give me a deal .... he actually said in broken English cheap and gave me the thumbs up sign. He also gave me directions on how to care for it that I did not understand. Oh well this is the one I picked and the kids now call it the baby Mosses basket.

Cultural Training

     We attended cultural training as a family this week and after 5 months of living here I guess it's better late than never. Although I think our original trial by fire integration was pretty affective. The kids had their own special training and were a little weary of it at first but to the teachers credit by the end of the day they did not want to leave! and she had them alone for 8 hours. They took a field trip into town and found different German symbols and then gave everyone a presentation of what they learned (very proud.) The teacher told us they were so well adjusted they didn't even seem to care they were in a foreign country.

    What did I learn ..... well I learned that it has been a very very long time since I had to pay attention for that long! I left with a crazy headache and no desire to enter the working world. We began by drawing a picture of what kind of animal we would be. Care to take a guess what each member in our family chose?

Elijah = Lizard ...No surprise there
Stella = and I quote... "a fuzzy monkey with a pink bowtie"
Oliver = Penguin ....he has always wanted to become a penguin when he grows up, I am not sure he understood the question.
Michael = Alligator
Me= House Cat

 I also learned that according to the presenters Germans and Americans can be summed up in fruit..........
Germans are coconuts (hard to crack)
Americans are Peaches thin skin and really sweet........ hah who knew.
I also learned that my husband has a hard job that I do not envy at all.........

 

He was very professional

 

Kinderdijk

      

  I waited to long to plan a proper trip for our long holiday weekend. So we did what we always do... we went to the Netherlands. We love the Netherlands, there is lots to do, things are always open, and it's beautiful. This time we googled windmills and found Kinderdijk a town about 2 and half hours away.  The town is quaint and the line of authentic windmills stretches out of sight in marshy wetlands. The kids really enjoyed all the ducks, geese, and other birds swimming around the swampy habitat. We only had to tell Eli not to poke/throw rocks at the birds a few times....ok maybe it was the whole time we were there. One windmill is open for touring it was pretty amazing inside. To think that families lived and worked inside.The kids of course thought it was awesome and we should build one for out next house).....um no.)
      We watched a video in the museum and what I found truly amazing was they said that if the Dutch stopped pumping water off of the land for 3 months a large portion of the country would be completely under water! as it sits right now it is already under sea level. Amazing that the Dutch settled on the land and made it not only livable but beautiful.

Crazy feet.... this fellow had a little nest with babies