Dogs

After sledding - Brian claimed he was "starving". I don't remember withholding food for several days, but Daphne wanted to offer him something from the shack at the base of the sledding hill.

MENU:
Beer
Warm wine
Coffee
Tea
Braut with bread

Brian said, "sure - I would love a Braut on a roll." David said that it also sounded good.

Daph walked off and ordered 2 Brot semmel.

Here's what she got.

Not quite a roll. 4 hot dogs in our vernacular.

We also had the world's most difficult dog with us. Brian insisted he could take a plate with 2 hot dogs and a piece of bread and eat them with George sitting next to him.

His mother and I disagreed. We offered bites of braut to the dog to keep him from taking Brian and David's fingers. Here David gives a bite to George so Brian doesn't get mauled.

Bad Tölz

Wikipedia says:
Bad Tölz is known for its spas, historic medieval town, and spectacular views of the alps. On the western bank of the Isar River lies the Kurverwaltung, or modern spa, whose iodine-rich waters are known for their soothing and healing powers. Another major attraction is Stadtpfarrkirche, a church built in 1466, which is an excellent example of German late-Gothic architecture.

We spent the day driving around and then sled riding. It was sunny and bright and the kids needed to get out. We found a nice hill...

It seems they are all over the place. Ski places are also everywhere.

We are testing the cold weather gear for skiing in late February in Austria.


The boys seemed more interested in playing "snow football" than sledding.
Julia took to the hill and was fast.

Even though Brian didn't seem to go fast or enjoy the trip too much, he always smiles.

Notice all of the old-style wooden sleds. They are everywhere including the city where people pull them with groceries, various supplies, or children as they walk on the sidewalks.

It was a sunny, blue day in Southern Germany. Nice.

Adjusting

We are almost here 6 months.
We have noticed many adjustments in our approach, our use of German, our time spent together on Sundays - many things.

On noticeable adjustment is at breakfast.
Early on in fatherhood, I made lots of pancakes and waffles on Sunday mornings. In our recent years in Chatham, we had frequent requests for Dunkin Donuts.

Now in Germany, this is a typical Sunday morning breakfast.

I went downstairs this morning while the "gang of three" was playing the Wii. I was outside for 13 steps and into our local bakery shop.
The buttered pretzel is standard (Brian and I).
David usually likes the apple strudel type thing. They didn't have it today so he had the mardi gras donut.
Julia likes chocolate croissants or the "butter cake".
Mom always says, "... just get me something that looks good."

Can anyone help me here - EVERYTHING looks good every day.

Curling

So our adventure this weekend was to get everything done Saturday - when the shops are open - so we could do something Sunday.

Our good friends the Frantzens invited us out to "so something really Bavarian". We went to go curling.

We started by driving south one hour to a large lake called Staffelsee. The Frantzens met us there with a small sled, hot tea, and (of course) pretzels.

We walked past the bier garden at the edge of the lake (which must be great in the summer) and straight out onto the ice.

There was a small island in the middle, the alps in the background, and a dusting of snow across the lake.
Now, our kids have been skating just a few times and that was always in an arena so this was new. Daph and I thought it was quaint and charming until we heard some large cracking noises.

Meanwhile, the boys are playfully riding along on the sled and having a grand time. I asked Joachin, "what about the cracking?" He said, "there is nothing to worry about - it makes all kinds of noise - this is natural. Just make sure you stay away from the dark areas of the lake where the warm springs bubble up through the ice. You can fall in, you know."

Daphne loved this answer.

We walked over to the boat house of their friend where the curling was set up. The boys loved just sliding...

We finally got to the game. It is basically boccie on the ice. The Bavarians do not use a guy in the front with a broom like the Olympics. My guess is because this would interfere with the smoking and beer drinking. Think bowling - social recreation, but on ice.

You can see the live hockey game more toward the center of the lake.
Here David throws a wobbler.



It was nice and bright and fun. The hosts offered us black tea instead of beer which was appreciated since it was a few degrees below freezing. The also offered to put some "liquid miracle" into the tea which they guaranteed would improve our skills.

The camera still loves Julia. There were also many dogs on the ice and George spent the day running, running, running all over the ice.

Another great adventure in Germany.

Meg and Rick visit

This past weekend we had some more visitors. Megan and Rick came to Munich.

Their first days were spent getting to see the kids school and walking around Munich. The weather was cold and crisp but dry so Rick could take some pictures while the kids and I worked.



The big excursion we planned for their visit was to try to go sled riding. I did some research on the web and found a place that was recommended by a bunch of other people from Munich.
After driving south to Austria, we eventually found the place. The web said it was a one hour pleasant hike up to a lodge where you could rent sled and then ride down the 800 meter elevation in about 10 minutes.

We hiked, and hiked, and hiked. Brian fell behind the group and wanted to quit. It was a pretty steep climb up a mountain road with lots of switchbacks.

The good news was that the sun came out and provided all of us with a great view of the alps.
Brian didn't care - he was tired.

We got pretty high up we realized after a good hour. Looking down - we realized why Brian was so tired.

Once at the top - we were not at all surprised to find a beer and sausage house. We rested and looked for the sled rental. The instructions were something like, "Hop on the sled and don't hit anything." We didn't have to sign a waiver either.


The ride down was a bit thrilling and exciting at the same time. We were riding on icy trails and the sleds would pick up a great deal of speed right before the switchback corners. Until we all learned how to slow down, it was scary.

Slowing down options:
- Rick: brute force to pick up the front of the sled
- Me: Dig boots into the ground in front of me
- David: fall off sled


We tried to get some action shots but we were just going too fast. Lots of blurs. When we got to the bottom we looked back up and realized you could see the cabin at the top. Look closely at the picture and you can see how high up we hiked.

Suddenly I felt badly for Bri-guy.


Sunday brought the first above Zero temps since our return. Our beautiful frozen canal was melting quickly. They closed the ice skating but the curling was still being attempted. Nobody seemed worried about falling into the water.


It was just plain wet. These people are dedicated to curling.

Meg and Rick are back now. Thanks for the visit!

Magic

Julia made up a schedule of chores for each of the kids to complete Mondays through Saturday. I asked her what happens on Sunday and she replied, "...there are no chores on Sunday" and left the room.

Daph rolled her eyes and said, "That's when the magic fairy does the chores." Only a Mother could say it with that much sarcasm.

Poor George

Without a doubt, George has had the most trouble in Germany.

In addition to his problems captured on previous posts, George suffered through the holidays.
This picture shows happier times. You know something is happening when you call the dog-sitter and they say, "...everything is ok now..."

It seems George "got" an infection on the side of his face between Christmas and New Years. It swelled to the size of a baseball, he became lethargic, and then got a fever. Our dog sitter took him to the vet and George was knocked out so they could drain the infection.

But it gets better - George manages to remove the drain. This means that it swells back up a few days later. We went back to the vet Saturday for another knock-out and draining. Our vet assumes that George was bitten and that caused the infection. George doesn't know how to quit so he AGAIN managed to Houdini the drain out.

Daphne took George back this morning. The drain is now stapled into George's face in multiple places with multiple staples.

He loves it here.

Back to Munich

It's been a month since our last post and much has happened:
- Family visit to Chatham - friends and doctors
- Christmas with the Stolfi clan - fun with family in the cold Ohio winter
- New Year's in Florida - watching children swim in chilly weather and college bowl games

We cannot thank everyone enough for hosting us and/or working with our impossible schedule. There are just too many friends and relatives to see and spend time with. We go back to Munich with great memories.

We returned last week and spent a good deal of time readjusting our body clocks and getting the apartment settled. The kids have been sleeping in until 10am so Monday morning wake up was challenging. There is a great deal of snow here and the weather has been below freezing for over a week so everything is frozen.

There is a 2 mile long canal that runs to the castle by our house that is completely frozen.

It provides several types of fun - ice skating and curling are the most popular. Daphne took this picture one morning while on her walk.

This weekend was sunny and bright (still cold) and there were hundreds of people on the ice. The kids, George and I all went down and walked on the ice. You can rent ice skates and curling equipment (without the broom) but we will save that for another time.

Frankly, the curling looks like another German reason to drink cold beer or warm red wine.

Munich is pretty with a blanket of white snow.