a day in the Alps

The beautiful thing to do here in southern Bavaria is to spend a day or more in the alps. Last time I was visiting, we went to the quite well known Tegernsee area. This time my cousin had a wonderful destination in mind, I had no idea where. Luckily they have a VW bus and all seven of us fit very comfortably. We drove into the mountains, passed a nice lake and then the streets started to get narrower and narrower and steeper and I would lie if I’d say I was peaceful and confident. I don’t like heights and I had to force myself to always look for higher ground.


Once we made it to the top, it was so worth it though. We went to an area called Sudelfeld, across from the mountain Wendelstein. Up there is a place called Speck-Alm at 1408 meters above sea level. Alm is a word for summer pastures in the Alps. We got to walk around a little and the top had a spectecular view to three sides. This is still considered the foothills of the Alps.



It was kind of like a trail that went right through the pasture with the cows and two horses roaming around. The horses were very friendly and the cows were not exactly shy either. I think that was really neat for the children, most animals are experienced through a fence and to stand in such proximity with 2 big horses is very special. The air was so clean and the mountains so far, it was wonderful. I saw a woman lounging in the grass reading and reading, that seemed like a perfect day to me. Maybe she hiked up, lies in the grass with a good book for most of the day and then hikes down.


In the winter this is a ski area and there are several lifts. It would actually be so lovely to stay there in the winter, the inn can serve 180 people and sleep 60. The whole place is done so cozy and interesting and very unique, even Sophie came out and exclaimed “those are the coolest bathrooms I have ever seen”. It must be so much fun, their website prepares people that the whole place is a loud party until 2 am in the morning - I can imagine it quite well. Too bad I don’t ski.


We had coffee and cake and I had a piece of exquisite red currant cake - so good we are going to recreate it tomorrow. The girls went for the really big flashy looking cake, of course.


Since my back and knee are still causing some troubles, we had to find another place where we could go for a longer walk without having to go up and down much and so we drove to the Spitzingsee, a lake with an elevation of 1048 meters above sea level.


We walked around the whole lake, since it is only about 3 km.


Johanna had a great time pushing Leander’s stroller, she seems to take a huge liking to taking care of him and his sister.


And how else does one end a day in the Alps? With more food of course, so we enjoyed some typical Bavarian food in the historical inn ‘Würzhütte’, which has been at that place since 1720. What a beautiful day and I feel priviledged to have had it.

Last days in Hamburg

Friday was one of those days that I expected to be a get-it-all-done day, but it was more of a slow day. We went to the big market again and I introduced my girls to paradise regarding candy: The market stand that I already stood in line at when I was 7 - yum. Friday and Saturday were marked by the typical time crunch that comes with an overwhelming power due to the awareness of leaving soon and no impending return. There are some last minute things to get while there are more things I remember all of a sudden that I did not get. Interspersed are the mundane realities of laundry, packing and organizing people. The kids kept themselves occupied with pitting cherries and blowing bubbles out of the window.


My mother took Sophie for another round of cherry picking, while Johanna and I went to a chorus concert. Consti and Peter are singing in the chorus Vokalcolorit, which is having its tenth anniversary. It was a very interesting mix of music from very old to modern and a good performance. To my surprise they had prepared a skit for the intermission and it was so funny, that I could not stop crying with laughter as it hit just the mark for singers. Another friend of mine, Lars sings in that chorus as well and I have known him for 30 years. I met his wife and is absolutely adorable and cute little daughter. Another old friend of all of us joined us from Berlin and we all went out and had a good time. It is interesting, some people hardly change at all, they just get older. Maybe that is true for all of us.

Since Johanna got to do 3 special outings with Consti and me, Sophie needed one as well. So we went for a very late breakfast at Consti and Peter’s place and afterwards walked to the museum of labor. It is a very interesting museum, housed in an old factory. They had a great exhibition about bridges in Hamburg. There were a lot of models and very old plans, software to design and test your own bridge, wooden elements to try the different types of bridges. With 2.500 bridges, Hamburg sure has a lot of history for them. The museum also offers a lot of activities for kids and for one Euro, Sophie got to coin and cloisonne a piece of copper. She did a great job with the machines that need a lot of power.


Trying to squeeze in more than possible, we had a last coffee appointment with my after school care teacher from many, many years ago. She is one of the nicest people I know. They have a weekend cabin in the woods, 30 minutes south of Hamburg and we took the train down. I made sure to make it an unforgettable afternoon by pulling a huge pot of freshly brewed coffee onto me (think 2 quarts), which gave us a lot of excitement. I did not burn anything badly, but smelled very caffeinated for the rest of the afternoon while slowly drying. Too bad John was not there to smell me :)


When we left Hamburg Monday morning, the children were quite sad, even though they were very happy to go to Bavaria. Johanna cried really hard after saying good bye to Consti. It is really special to have such a good friend, who is a really good friend to the children as well.

A Thursday in Hamburg

If you read my last posts, you can probably feel the exhaustion we felt at the end of our Denmark trip. Our Thursday was already booked already though and so there was no stopping. We started with a breakfast at my friend Consti’s house. She had so many different things to eat, we could have had breakfast for the rest of the day, Most exciting for Sophie though was the train ride going there, she loves the subway and if you are in the front car, you can be just behind the driver and look out.


My friend is a teacher and it was her first day if vacation and so we had planned a little stroll & shop trip. Since that is very counter productive with children of any age in tow, be met my mom and off loaded the off spring. Shopping was fun, though with the dollar being so weak, I kept it to a pencil, 3 postcards and some fantastic chocolates for my mom and some friends. The chocolate store Chocovida is wonderful, they make their own chocolate (I recommend the one with sea salt) and they sell the worlds most exquisite (and expensive) chocolate. They know a lot about chocolates and cocoa, they make it and they even do wine and chocolate tastings paired together. I could so go for that.


We also went to look at our old high school, which is right at that corner and checked it out a bit to see how much it has changed. It feels strange to look up at some windows that were once my class room. It feels surreal, really!


We met the girls my mom and some friends of hers for a wonderful picnic at the park with all the delicious things one could want and some prosecco. It was so nice hanging out in the park while munching all these great things and feeling the bubbles rushing to my head. At the same time I had to think about so many moments I had spent in that park, all at different stages in my life; sledding in the early darkness of winter days, being allowed to play soccer with the boys, because I looked like one table tennis Easter Sunday, simultaneous sunbathing and studying for film class, swinging while the trees were ablaze in fall colors, running around and around the park while desperately trying to memorize linguistics, passionate kisses in the moonlight after a night out...


Consti had gotten tickets for the new Harry Potter movie in original version (no hideous dubbing) and we met her partner Peter and his son Joern at the theater. We have known Joern since he was three, he is as tall as me now. I still think that he is cute, but nobody should tell him I wrote that, because he probably would be so embarrassed.


Johanna and I spent the whole way home lamenting the important parts left out of the movie and the excessive snogging related hormone craziness being included. There are little moments, when your eye rolling daughter can be like a friend. Right now she is reading HP in German and is almost as quick as in English, let's hope she is not just skimming through the pages.

Copenhagen

After our 'three castles and a museum' tour, we all ended up quite tired and of course late at he house of our friends. Everybody was up very late, watching Sound of Music and I think the Danish girls were surprised that we knew and sang every song in the movie. We woke up early though, but everybody else was sleeping in, so we spent more time with the bunnies. Anna, who did not come on the tour the day before, got to decide what to do with the day and opted for swimming. There was a slide and how much fun we had with that. Logically, we ended up in Copenhagen pretty late, so there was not too much time for sight seeing or doing a tour. And so we decided to just walk from the main station to Nyhavn and in a round about way along the castle back to the station.

Walking out of the train station, the first things we encountered were Hard Rock cafe, Build-a-bear, McDonalds and Burger King and promptly I was asked, if we really needed to come to Copenhagen for that. Turn a corner and you see the city hall, with its tall spire, surprisingly it is actually only a little over 100 years old.

City Hall is a very appropriate place for lunch. The girls absolutely fell in love with the Danish Hot Dogs (with remoulade, roasted onions and thinly sliced sweet pickles in a bun).


Now if you think of quaint Danish streets and fresh temperatures, you are well off, it was hot, hot, hot and VERY crowded. For some reason it must have been a very popular week, to me it seemed as if anybody vacationing in Europe was in Copenhagen that day.


St. Nikolaj church


The Royal Danish Theater


Finally we reached Nyhavn. I only got the children this far, because I lured them with icecream, but one we got there, it was about 3 times the normal price and not even for good icecream, that even they thought we should wait. Sometimes children can be reasonable, always when we least expect it :) Nyhaven, which means 'new harbor' is despite its name the oldest part of Copenhagen's harbor and was built in 1670 by Christian V. Today it is a hot tourist spot since it is just so picturesque and it is lined with cafes and restaurants and most waterbound tours start here.


Another very interesting renaissance building is Europe's oldest stock exchange (Børsen), built by Christian IV from 1619 - 1640. The unusual spire are four dragon tails twined together. I wish I would have a better picture, as it is quite a remarkable building, but a quick tour in the summer heat cannot always produce good photos.


We walked through Christiansborg Palace, which seemed very boring compared to the what we saw the day before. I love the palace Amalienborg, but we had not enough time to go and spend time, we had gone by on Monday, but without a photo opportunity, so sorry, just a picture of the gray Christiansborg, which was partially under construction. I looks serious, quite appropriate, since it houses the executive, legislative and judicial power in Denmark, the only place in the world to have them all in one building.


For some unknown reason, Johanna is very afraid that we will miss a train and so we always end up too early at the train station, which is not a bad thing anyway, because it left time for the very deserved ice cream and watching other travelers. I love people watching and to imagine stories about all the people I see. The Copenhagen main station is very beautiful I think.

Just sitting in the train and relaxing on the sunset was a welcome change.


A five hour train ride goes by rather quickly, if there is a ferry part involved. It is quite amazing to have a train drive into a ship one way, cross the water and drive out the other. People are not allowed on board the train during the ferry ride and so we had some dinner and spent the rest of the time watching the sun over the water and the other boats and ships.

Compared to Copenhagen, Hamburg seemed less busy, partially, because it was night by the time we arrived. I like evenings in the city when it is not completely dark yet and the deep blue sky and the golden lights produce such cozy colors.