We are still unpacking and purging our stuff!
We are making a lot of progress but still have a ways to go. Monday, I had the day off as part of my in-processing to continue the unpacking process and we all spent the whole day shifting items around and putting stuff away.
We were supposed to get our internet and TV finally installed on Thursday. We signed up three weeks ago and were given this installation date but unfortunately, due to some language issues, we are now not getting internet for two more weeks. We finally talked to an English speaker at the company and worked it out but are so bummed about the additional delay.
Monday was HOT aka 80 degrees 🤣. Our friends texted us and asked if we wanted to go to the Sindelfingen Freibad, or the public pool. We had so much to do but I knew the kids needed to get out and I needed a break.We’ve been spending most of our time with the one family who used to live in the same town. They know a third family from Fairfax, VA, who just arrived in Germany and are still in the hotel. We had video chatted with all of them prior to the move but this was our first time meeting them in person.
German pools are no joke! The word pool does not give credit to these staples of German culture. Just about every town in Germany has a Freibad and by that I mean a HUGE park with multiple pools, diving boards, slides, playgrounds, showers, and of course, a Biergarten. Everything is surrounded by meadows and instead of pool chairs, you bring blankets and set up on the grass. You can even bring your own food and drinks in! They only cost a couple euros to enter and there is a discount if you live in the town of that pool. We don’t live in Sindelfingen so we paid full price at €4, per person- what a bargain!
A fourth family joined us so we had four Moms, and ten kids in our group. We barely saw the kids the entire time, they had so much fun playing and exploring the park. Ice cream, or “Eis” is another German staple that you have to have once a day so the kids had their daily Eis there as well.
The rest of the week I was in a training course on Eastern time. That meant being online from 2-10pm, Germany time. The late evenings were rough but it did give me extra time in the mornings to do more unpacking. On Wednesday, the kids went bowling on base with our “DC transplants” crew, as we are now calling ourselves. The kids all get along so great, we are so happy to have been able to meet great people right away. On Thursday’s the chapel on base runs a kids club so the kids attended their second meeting of “Club Beyond” and had a great time.
The unpacking has been tough. Seeing the house in disarray has definitely caused a lot of stress and anxiety, especially on kids who have done their fair share of crying this week. We are so glad that we’ve had lots of opportunities to get them out of the house and around other kids their age.
Matt and I have been hustling to get the house in order and cleaned up to decrease the kids’ stress levels and things are finally starting to come together. We called to have the empty boxes picked up from the moving company but they won’t be able to come for a couple of weeks so Matt has been making several trips to the recycling center.
Things are finally starting to come together with the house! It’s starting to feel like home!
On Friday, the sun finally came out after a week of torrential rains. We decided to walk to dinner in Böblingen. The kids (and Matt) have loved trying Döner Kebabs at Kebab shops so we picked one of the three in town for dinner. After dinner, we walked down to Böblinger See, the city lake, had ice cream, and went home.
We told the kids that they could each choose a weekend activity. We gave them a list of eight places to choose from and they each picked one.
Brooklyn picked Heidelberg so that is where we went Saturday. It was an easy drive; only an hour and a half and the rain held off for our visit.
Heidelberg is a university town; it’s university is the oldest and one of the best in Germany and was founded in the 1300s. It’s kind of like the Oxford of Germany and considered one of its prettiest cities.
First stop was a preztel for Ryan and a gingerbread cookie for Brooklyn.
We walked pretty much the whole length of Heidelberg’s Haupstraße, aka Main Street, which is the longest pedestrian shopping street in Germany. It’s lined with so many stores, restaurants, cafes, and of course, Kebab shops.
We walked around the Altstadt, or “Old Town” and checked out the buildings and fountains.
Next stop was Heidelberg Castle, which is up on a hill, overlooking the city. To get there you have to walk up many, many, many steps, which I can tell you the kids really enjoyed and definitely didn’t complain about 😜
The castle is just a ruin now but still cool. The kids got audio guides. I don’t know why but they ask for these everywhere we visit. They call them video games so 🤷♀️
The views from the top were so pretty. Even though it made the pictures look a little gray, we were so glad it was overcast because it was starting to feel pretty warm.
After we left the castle, we went through the gardens to check out another viewpoint of Heidelberg with the castle in it.
We walked back down the steps to the Old Town. By now, the city was PACKED. It was slow moving to just walk down the street because of all the people. We ate lunch in another kebab shop and did some souvenir shopping.
Last stop was Alte Brücke (“Old Bridge”) where everyone has to get a picture of themselves in front of the city. There has been a bridge on this site since the 1200s. The original bridge gate, from 1460, still stands. The current version was built in 1788 when it was just “The Bridge.” When a second Neckar River crossing was built downstream in 1877, it became the ‘old’ one. The current bridge was bombed by the Germans during their retreat in 1945 in an attempt to deter the Americans who were headed to the city. They bombed half of the bridge and three of the arches were destroyed. Following WW2, the citizens of Heidelberg did their own fundraising in order to repair the destroyed section of the bridge.
After checking out the bridge, we got our daily ice creams, and headed back to the car.
Ryan’s pick for Sunday was Bad Wildbad, a town in the Black Forest. The town is along the Enz River and was historically known as a mineral spa town, hence the “Bad” (bath) in its name.
The town is only about an hour from our house by car. We parked and then took the mountain tram up to the top of Sommer Mountain.
At the top, we took a short hike over to the Treetop Walk, which is a wooden walkway that takes you up and on a walk throughout the, you guessed it- tree tops!
Throughout the walk, there were several “challenges” to walk over that kept us laughing at each other most of the way.
At the end of the Treetop Walk, there is a huge spiral ramp that takes you up to a viewing ledge where you can see above the trees for miles and miles. If you stopped walking around at the top, you could really feel the platform swaying back and forth in the wind.
The telescopes at the top were super cool. When you looked through them, they told you the names of the cities in the distance you were looking at. You could just barely see the tip-top of Heidelberg, where we had been the day before, which was pretty awesome.
From the top, there is a huge spiral slide that you can take down.
After the Treetop Walk, we went straight to the Woodland Adventure Park, which was pretty much a huge playground and obstacle course for kids. Matt and I sat in the Biergarten and had lunch while the kids played.
We hiked on to our last stop. Brooklyn and Ryan of course had to stop and stack stones along the way.
The last stop was The Wildline, a huge pedestrian suspension bridge hanging almost 200 feet above a valley and suspended between two mountains.
We walked up to the center but we all chickened out and decided we had gone far enough and ran (well actually walked cautiously, semi-quickly) back. The bridge was swaying so hard in the wind and being able to see down through the floor was creepy. Now we can say, “been there, done that” though.
We hiked back to the tram and stopped for some pictures along the way. During our picture session, Ryan walked through and got burned by Stinging Nettle on one leg. He sat down on a rock, in pain, and got burned by another Stinging Nettle; on the other leg. Then, Brooklyn got burned running towards him. Stinging Nettle is apparently pretty abundant in Germany. It’s in the Poison Ivy family and instead of causing an itch, it creates a small acid burn where it touches you. Luckily, it does not spread and the burning turns to tingling pretty quickly. Another German family saw it happen and of course was carrying first aid cold packs with them and saved us.
Matt and I were in the middle of posing for a picture when Ryan got burned and I jumped down before we got our picture. The Germans who saved us with the first aid kit urged us to hurry up and get our shot once they gave Ryan the ice pack. (They were waiting to take their own picture 🤣)
Ryan’s leg
We took the mountain tram back down to Bad Wildbad and had drinks in another Biergarten along the river. We stopped and bought some Black Forest cake and then headed home.
We stopped at the Px on base on the way home and let Ryan do a little birthday shopping. Ryan really wanted Chinese food for dinner and there are five Chinese restaurants in our town. We struck out though on eating in one since three are closed on Sundays, one was closed for their “summer vacation,” and one had turned into another Kebab shop. Instead we had dinner at a cute cafe next to the lake, The Seegärtle. We had walked by it many times before and ended up loving it. We will definitely be bringing future guests here. We walked back home via the lake to end the weekend.
Next week is Ryan’s birthday and Lake Bled!
Links:
Bad Wildbad Treetops Walk: https://www.baumwipfelpfade.de/en/schwarzwald/
Bad Wildbad Wildline Bridge: https://wildline.de
Seegartle Restaurant Böblingen: https://www.seegaertle.de
Gilcrests Abroad 