Week 25: Halloween

Week 25 and surprise, surprise, it was another busy one!

Brooklyn took the Red Cross babysitting class every day after school. She finished the course and is now a certified babysitter and is also on a referral list on base for parents looking for sitters!

The kids also had picture day this week, which was interesting since it was also Red Ribbon week at school and they had to dress in themes each day. Add in that it was the start of the second quarter so their elective classes and teachers changed, and we were so done with it by Friday!

Friday was my day off, so Matt and I planned another day date. When I was gone last weekend, the leaves really started peaking so I wanted to get out and soak up the autumn colors.

First we headed to Burg Hohenneuffen, a castle ruin about an hour away. We hiked up to the peak that it sits on and had the place almost to ourselves, aside from a school field trip that was there.

After that, we still had quite a bit of time on our hands so we headed to another place suggested on our community Facebook page, Römersteinturm. We hiked up another hill, this time getting super-out of breath. Matt checked the elevation and we were almost 2000 feet up, which is probably why we found this hike so much harder than the one we had just done.

It looks like it could have been Rapunzel’s tower but Google told me the tower was built in 1912 as an observation tower. It’s still open, but was closed the day we visited, which was fine because we were too winded from the hike up the hill. The leaves were beautiful though so we took some pictures and decided it was time for lunch.

We headed into the nearby medieval town of Bad Urach for lunch. We had driven by a few weeks ago on our way to hiking the town’s famous waterfalls, and it looked really cute. The town itself dates back to 1025 and the downtown area doesn’t look like it’s changed much since the 1400s. There is even a pharmacy that has a sign out front that says “Since 1479,” which is about 10 years before Columbus sailed to America. It’s kind of mindblowing.

The kids had a Halloween dance that evening and both stayed after school for activities, so we didn’t see them until about 8pm. Matt and I checked out a sushi restaurant around the corner from school until it was time to pick them up.

Saturday, we went to the Ludwigsburg Pumpkin Festival. Fun fact: it’s the world’s largest pumpkin festival, so I guess someone, somewhere is keeping track of these things. The festival is open from September through November, but this was our first chance to attend.

The internet told me we needed to get there early because they cut off admission once 6000 tickets have been sold, and that normally happens in the morning. The benefits of this are that we got there in time to get parking right up front and didn’t have to wait in any lines. No one was blocking our pictures, and we were able to walk through quickly. The cons are that not even the food stalls were opened up and a lot of the activities were not open either. The kids were a little unimpressed. Regardless, we were able to see everything and have a glass of gluwhein before heading back home.

After the pumpkin festival, we went home and changed into costumes and went to our friends’ home for a Halloween party. Seriously, Beth thinks of everything. She had costume contests, a scavenger hunt, games, and even a haunted trail.

Sunday, I needed to see more leaves, so we drove to Triberg, in the Black Forest, about an hour and a half away.

The weather was supposed to be cold and rainy but we headed out and it ended up being a gorgeous day. This is Germany.

We started at the Triberger Waterfalls, which is Germany’s highest waterfall (but not the longest as Matt later corrected me). It was gorgeous, and again not too crowded due to the forecast.

After the waterfall, we went into town and had döner kebabs and pizza and then went shopping for a cuckoo clock.

The town is famous for having the “House of 1000 Clocks,” where the famous Black Forest cuckoo clocks are sold. My grandmother actually bought a clock here about 30 years ago when she was visiting my uncle. We searched and searched and finally found one we wanted to take home.

The last stop out of town was Germany’s “First, Oldest, Biggest” Cuckoo Clock. Apparently after this one was built and started attracting so many tourists, someone built another down the road—hence, the distinction of “First.”

We started inside the clock and got a look at the mechanism and then parked ourselves outside on a bench for the show. We waited with a crowd of people and finally, it gave a kind of weak “cuckoo.” Everyone was laughing when it was done and wondering, “that’s what we waited for?” Actually, a coworker had told me about it, so it was really funny for us to hype up the kids in advance and then see their reactions.

We made it back home in time for Trick or Trunk on base. The kids both dressed as inflatable dinosaurs. What a pain in the butt to trick or treat with the short arms- we had to help them collect the candy. The event was awesome though with food trucks, a DJ, the high school’s drum line, and moonbounces.