Bavarian cousins

It might almost appear as if we do nothing but visiting churches and castles, but that is far from reality. The days that we are just hanging out are just not as picturesque as the castle pictures, they can be as much fun though.

We had a lot of confusion with the train tickets with a lot of back and forth, as a result we ended up riding first class in the super fast ICE train, which was pretty cool. We loved riding first class, except that there is not much writing to be done, the train wiggles way too much to write legible. I still have not written any postcards, I should get that done soon.

A day or two after arriving at my cousin’s house, Sophie asked me how I got to know them. For some reason it had escaped her that Karsten was my cousin and we were visiting family and not friends. Of course in some instances, family can be like friends. When we grew up, Karsten and I did not hang out that much, because his older brother was closer in age and so I spend more time with him. But as adults we both moved to Bavaria the same year, to different universities though.


I was not sure if my kids would be bored with the little ones, Anna is 2.5 and Leander 1 year, but they play together nicely. Both girls like being the older cousin and helping with the little ones, must be their maternal instincts or because they are just so darn cute. It made me realize how big and grown my two are. We gave a lot of our special baby and toddler things to them and seeing them made it even more obvious to me, it is a little bit sad, difficult to put in words.


We went to a lot of Biergarten for dinner and once a huge thunder storm came through with tons of rain. The big girls taught Anna how much fun it is to run in the pouring rain.

Having a real good summer, water plays a big role in the passing of the days and so we went to a baggersee once (a quarry lake) and a pool the other. They baggersee was so nice, right in nature, 2 lakes, the water so fresh and clean and in a perfect aqua color.


The pool was nice too, very spacious and with 4 different pools and huge well taken care of grounds. Sophie wanted to jump of the 3 meter tower, but whenever she got up there, she got scared and came back down. The fifth time up she was so upset with herself, that she started crying. Johanna showed her how to jump and told her she would get Sophie some ice cream if she would jump. That is all the bribe she needed and she jumped, even twice and proud as can be. Don’t tell them that I was very happy she did not ask me to do it, I have done it and I don’t need to do it again, really...

But who needs to go to the pool, a little kiddie pool in the back yard can be just as much fun. They girls opened a car wash for the Bobby cars (German plastic cars kids ride on and a must for every child) and cleaned them meticulously. My cousin’s garden has nothing but fields and nature and lovely view, what a perfect spot.


My cousin had to fly to the states to a conference and we brought him to the airport, which is very close. There is a hill outside of the airport, a perfect spot for a picnic and to watch the planes land and take off. We even saw my cousin’s airplane take off, that was kind of neat.


The town of Freising had a festival and we got to go up the church’s tower for an amazing view. The 227 steps were a few too many if anybody would ask me, but nobody did. You can see Munich, the Alps and other intersting spots from up there.