Our trip this past week to Germany was over a year in the making.
It all started when Connor, Colin's brother, announced he planned to go to Germany his 4th year of college for a study abroad. Colin was like, that would be awesome if we could visit him, AND I think Eid will fall during October that year, so we could go during the beautiful fall time! However, all of this was just a wish and dream, since days off a school/work for Muslim holidays like Eid, are never officially called (dated) until near the estimated date (and it would be a few days for a long weekend or a whole week, you never know). Always leaves us guessing!
Well, we were so excited last October when we received the draft of this year's school calendar and saw that because Eid would fall mid-week, the school had decided to play it safe and just gave the whole week off as "Fall Break". We realized that we could plan ahead now, which we never expected, and book flights and lodging as soon as Connor confirmed a study abroad placement and location.
We learned over the summer that Connor would be in Mosbach, Germany, which is about 2 hours south of Frankfurt and a beautiful, quaint town. It offered a wonderful taste of typical German life, beautiful scenery, and the Fall experience we hadn't had in two years. It was amazing how similar the area of Germany we were in was just like the valley in Oregon. We felt so at home (well, me more since Colin grew up in Bend).
The girls were fantastic. Despite a super rocky start at the Muscat Airport at 10:30 at night due to a mix up in booking for Emalyn's lap-infant seat, we got to Frankfurt on an overnight flight by 6:30 in the morning, got our rental car, and headed down the A6 to Mosbach. The girls slept, we enjoyed the scenery, and found our hotel in Mosbach by 10:00 AM.
The next three days were filled with wonderful sightseeing and adventures. We took in each moment whether walking around the old town near our hotel, eating out, seeing Connor, driving to destinations, eating breakfast in the hotel, buying groceries, whatever! We also LOVED being able to get to wear on cold-weather clothes, bundle up, and enjoy the cold! It was so great and it was such the respite we needed and family trip to remember. Here are some photos from out trip highlighting events and sights:
In the alley outside our hotel and then in the hotel room. We stayed at Hotel Lamm and were accommodated by a wonderful staff in a cozy room.
Touring old-town with Connor. We loved the opportunity to see him!
Fresh cider! Aberly had never had apple juice so good. She chugged it so fast that I got only a couple sips myself.
While Connor was in school, we toured two castles. The first day we went to Castle Hornberg which was very old and it's own vineyard/winery. The castle offered our first stunning view of the area.
Peeking out a wall window
Loving it!
Aberly and Colin head towards the castle's newest wing and staircase. There was also a church with a coffin inside, as well as a room that housed all kinds of weathered wood carvings that used to adorn the castle.
Aberly took this nice picture of us in front of the dining hall fireplace. (Emalyn was konked out on me)
While playing on the viking boat in town, I heard this gal, Michelle, talking with an American accent. I joked it was nice to hear someone speaking English and she laughed and said she noticed ours too. We got talking and they are in Mosbach working with the local church but are Oregonians as well and are actually related to friends of ours we used to work with in Young Life in Bend. Small world!
The second day, we headed to Playmobile Funpark, which was, seriously, the funnest park ever. All exploring, pretending, climbing, running, balancing, imagining.... No rides, just fun! And I loved the fact that it was NOT like the US where everything would be overly safe and less fun. It was challenging and risky in some ways (ropes courses, bridges with rope railings or no railings, steep stairs) and allowed a kid to have a great sense of adventure (side note, there is a Playmobile park in Florida and I'm curious how different the two may be). Colin and I loved it too! Aberly loved seeing her favorite toys in life-size and doing all the fun things it had to offer. (This, of course, was the rainy day of the trip, so we were glad to have our rain jackets and umbrellas!)
Colin and the girls meet the king and queen.
Aberly and I pull ourselves across the pond.
Milking (yes, water actually came out of them) and washing the cows.
We board the pirate ship. She and Colin climbed the netting to the crows nest.
We take a break inside where there are the every theme's "ultimate" toy sets for kids to play with. Aberly's favorite, of course, the princess castle.
Emalyn loved chewing and leaving her spit on these toys. I'm sure she picked up the same amount of germs she left.
One angle view of the inside playarea. It was huge, bright, and wonderful!
Attacking the monster indoor park play area
So happy to watch all the kids playing
One of Aberly's favorite parts of the trip was seeing Fall. She has been learning about Autumn in school so was enchanted by fall trees, corn fields, pumpkins, apples, and everything else she just saw in pictures at school. We collected special leaves and acorns for her to take back for show and tell at school.
Our last day, we went to one more castle (Castle Guttenberg) across the valley from the first castle we saw. The 1st castle can just barely be seen on the shaded part of the hill behind Colin just right of the center of the photo.
Aberly was a fabulous tourist. She LOVED climbing the tower to the top of the castle. P.S. It's a good thing Nana (my mom) was not with us in either of these castles, especially the first one. She would've been having a heart attack.
Looking down at the castle from the tower.
Our final trip treat was that Papa Skip came to visit Connor too, and he arrived the evening before we left. It was a short visit, but we had a lovely dinner and he got some special time with his granddaughters. Aberly loved trying to avoid getting caught by him and Connor.
Poor Emalyn, she was so tired by the time we finally got a picture and could muster any of the beautiful smiles she had given all evening. Three generations together!
There are so many more memories of the trip that I wish I could share but it would take too long. We can't wait to go to Germany again this Christmas where we'll meet my parents in Bavaria and experience a true, white Christmas!
