Somehow this post got stuck before publishing so two weeks coming at you at once…
We had another week at home and this time, got a little more rest.
The most exciting thing to note is that our heat is finally working. our house is older so has radiators. When things started to get cold, Matt turned them on and they weren’t really putting out much heat. Our landlord scheduled a service guy to come out but we think there may have been a communications issue because it took three appointments before someone finally came. Luckily, it hasn’t been too cold and the heat is now working so we are ready for cooler weather.
We also got a new clothes wardrobe! I saw one on the local yard sale page for €20! I quickly committed to it (against Matt’s better judgement) and had to figure out a way to pick it up since we don’t have the truck anymore. We asked our friend if we could borrow her minivan for a 15 minute errand and we were soon on our way! When we got there, the wardrobe was upstairs in a bedroom, where it had been assembled. We quickly got stuck in the spiral staircase with it. We had to bring it back upstairs and dissemble it to get it out of the house, then take all the seats out of the van to fit it in. An hour and a half later, we were finally home with our wardrobe!
Our new guest bed was also finally delivered so we’ve been working on getting our guest room set up. We are almost ready for visitors.
Friday was my day off but because that was when the heating worker finally came, we didn’t get much activity in. By the time the kids got home from school, I was itching to get out of the house. We headed to Killesberg Park in North Stuttgart. We climbed the Killesburg Tower and had a great view over Stuttgart. The tower was so wobbly though, we snapped a few pictures and ran back down.
We stopped in the Biergarten in the park for drinks, pretzels, and ice cream. Ryan rode the carousel while he waited for us to finish us. On the way home, we stopped at Chinese restaurant we hadn’t been to before for dinner, which had great food (and was cheap)!
Saturday we headed to Hohenzollern Castle, about an hour south of our house. From the pictures, it’s a beautiful castle, perched on the highest mountain in the area. We could see it for miles as we drove up to it. We toured the interior, which was really short, and then walked around the castle walls for more great views over the countryside. Where was the beautiful view of the castle that we always see of this castle though? I consulted with Google to find this place.
A Google search quickly took me to a blog post that talked about a 15 minute hike on flat ground, suitable for strollers, that would take us to the lookout. We put the location in the GPS and drove to the trailhead. Here is where my family would start to hate me.
The trail started out flat- for five seconds, then we had to climb about 200 steps up to a church. The church one we had seen from the castle and it was cute to see it up close, but we continued along the trail. The trail started to get super steep and muddy. The parts of the trail that weren’t muddy, were rocks covered in slippery moss. None of us were wearing shoes appropriate for a park, much less a steep, muddy trail, but I continued to drag my family along. They asked to turn around but the GPS kept saying it was only 7 more minutes. Finally we reached a point where the path was completely covered in fallen trees so I agreed to turn around. Then we slipped and skidded all the way back out. It turns out, the GPS took us to an alternate trailhead. Not the flat one. As we were already making ourselves late to the next activity, we had to hit the road. Now we have to plan a trip to come back out and find the viewpoint.
Saturday afternoon, the kids had a birthday party. The parents hung out on over some beer and wine. It was the perfect afternoon to sit and chill outside.
By Sunday, Matt’s cold had caught up with him. As soon as he woke up, he said “I’m not going anywhere today,” which I found funny since it means he’s expecting it now every weekday.
I could not sit around though. Because of our trip next week, Brooklyn will miss an Apple Orchard visit with her Science class and she was upset. I looked up apple orchards in Germany. Turns out, that’s just a touristy thing for Americans, unless you’re working in one, so the closest one was about 2 hours away.
The kids were excited so we headed out and made the drive to Mainz, to Apple Happel. This place was definitely designed with Americans in mind. There are two more bases close to Mainz and I would guess at least 50% of the people there were Americans.
We got baskets and went and filled them in the orchard with apples. We shopped in the apple shop for all kinds of apple products, especially Apple-secco. The kids had chocolate covered apples and I had a pretzel and we headed back home to get ready for our week.
Next week are headed back home for a wedding!
Gilcrests Abroad 