Halloween Bust

This year was not our best Halloween experience ever.  The boys were all excited about trick or treating, even Julian because his favorite movie at the moment is Charlie Brown's Great Pumpkin movie.  We made the boys do their homework after school and then we had dinner around 5:30.  They headed out to the American housing area by 6:00 PM, we thought this would give them plenty of time for trick or treating.  Unfortunately most houses had run out of candy by 6:00 and so the boys had to walk forever to find just a few houses that were still passing out candy.

While Hyrum drove the big boys up to Netzaberg, I chose to walk the babies to an American housing area here in Pressath.  Unfortunately only ONE house out of the 10 in the area were passing out candy.  Poor Julian stood on the doorstep all excited for a treat and when no one answered the door he would say, "try next house."  Our temporary baby, Connor (who we are babysitting for a few days) fell asleep after just 5 minutes in the stroller, so I guess he didn't mind too much that no one was home.

After all is said and done, I still think the boys had a fun time.  They came home with a few treats and at this age I think that is still pretty exciting.

Emerson and Townsend both wanted to be ghosts this year.  It was great that they were happy with old sheets, their Mom is no seamstress!

This is a shot of the boys walking around Netzagerg in search of candy.  I had to add it because it's kind of spooky how they look like real ghosts...OoooOoooohhhhh

RSP reunion Part III

Our final hurrah was a trip to Prague.  After our rushed visit around Rothenburg and Munich we took our time on Wednesday morning sleeping in, taking long showers and enjoying a fabulous breakfast, courtesy of Hyrum.  That meant that we didn't get on the road until about 10:00 but it was a rainy, cold day so we were uninspired to get moving.

The guest house we stayed at in Prague

Did I mention it was cold and rainy?

Our first stop was Wenceslas square.  This entire street was lined with building from the art nouveau period.  I was so amazed by the architecture, I think my friends got tired of hearing me say, "oh my goodness, look at that building and those sculptures and those windows..."

I had to add this photo.  This is what I looked like all week.  Me and my travel book guru Rick Steves became good friends while I tried to guide my guests around the different cities.

The astronomical clock in the old town square.  It was a real bummer we kept missing this clock chime the hour.  I guess that gives us all a reason to come back and visit Prague again!

Posing on the Charles Bridge

Legend has it that if you rub St. Charles while making a wish, that wish will come true.

We wandered around in the cold looking for the John Lennon tribute wall.  It was fun to see parts of Prague we may not have seen if we knew where we were going BUT it would have been more fun if it wasn't so cold!  Pam and Duke, showing a bit of love.

Sara and I wanted in on the love action:)

Nothing beats a warm trdelnik when you are walking around Prague at night.

We enjoyed a fabulous dinner at a restaurant our hotel manager recommended.  After dinner we hit the sack early.  When we woke up it was still really cold but at least it wasn't raining.  Our first stop was the Prague castle and St. Vitus Cathedral.

The view of Prague from Castle Hill

In 1618 Protestant rebels stormed the castle and threw two Catholic priests out the window.  This incident helped spark the 30 years war.  Pam was willing to play the part of the Catholic priest while Sara and Duke tossed her out the window:)

A shot from the back of St. Vitus Cathedral.

This Cathedral had some of the most beautiful stained glass windows I have seen here in Europe.

The Golden Lane.  This is where the goldsmiths and metal workers lived during the building of the castle.

For a time, writer Franz Kafka lived at number 22, Golden Lane

We had to get home by 5:00 so that Hyrum could leave for a meeting.  It would have been fun to hang out in Prague for another few hours but I feel like we got a great sample and it made me want to go back for more!  It was tough coming home and having to be a Mom again.  I had to do homework with the boys, get dinner on the table and do bath time...I think I would rather be on vacation:)  I let the boys stay up until 9:00 so that we could all play a game with my friends who would be leaving the next morning.

Here we are playing Doodle Dice.  Townsend won but Duke was a pretty close 2nd!

The week had flown by and we found ourselves once again at the Nuremberg airport.

It's always sad to say goodbye, BUT...

...It's fabulous to have great friends and wonderful memories!

Until the next RSP reunion...Love you Sara and Pamela!!!

RSP reunion Part II

I have to give a very big THANK YOU to Hyrum who took the week off of work so that I could travel with my friends.  I am so glad I got the chance to spend time catching up and having fun...thanks Hyrum for being the best stay-at-home Dad ever!

Monday we headed out of town, our first stop was Nuremberg.  We only stopped to tour the Nazi Documentation Center museum and the Nazi rally grounds and then we were on our way again.

Duke, Pam, Sara and Rachelle outside the Documentation museum.

Pam and Sara inside the museum listening to their "nerd packs" aka: English translation to the exhibits earphones.

Standing on the platform at the Zeppelin Field, famous Nazi party rally grounds

Back in the car we made our way another hour to Rothenburg ob der Tauber.  I love this cute Medieval city.

This is the super cute guest house we stayed at in Rothenburg

One of the best things about Rothenburg is you can walk around the old city wall. 

Sara, Rachelle and Pam on the steps of St. Jacobs church in Rothenburg

Definite highlight of any trip to Rothenburg is the "Night Watchmans Tour"  Here we are posing with the tour guide.  I highly recommend this to anyone visiting Rothenburg.

Man, those German guest houses sure know how to treat you to breakfast!

On Tuesday morning, after the fabulous breakfast, we packed back into the car and drove to Dachau concentration camp.  I had never been there before and we didn't have much time but I'm so glad we made that trip.  Dachau was the first concentration camp opened by the Nazi party and the only concentration camp that was in operation during all 12 years of Nazi rule.

I couldn't resist this shot.  We did a lot of driving over a 6 day period and these two were usually asleep after just a few minutes in the car:)

The words on this sign say "Work Makes You Free."  What an ironic sign at the entrance of a concentration camp.

They had rebuilt some living quarters so you could see what it would have been like.  It's so strange to imagine that some people could do this to other people.

I loved this sculpture.  The artist arranged the people to look like barbed wire fence, it sure made you feel for the prisoners that lived here in Dachau.

This Madonna and child statue was actually kept in the Catholic priests quarters within the concentration camp.  Dachau had the highest number of Catholic priests of any concentration camp.  They were imprisoned for their ethnicity or because they spoke out against the Nazi regime.

The crematorium.  This room gave me the creeps.  You wonder about the people that ran these ovens and how they lived with this reality for 12 years.

After Dachau we drove into Munich, about 30 minutes away.  We just missed the glockenspiel show by about 3 minutes!  We walked around the old city some and enjoyed fabulous bakery treats but the real fun started when we headed to the Hofbrauhaus.  Good food, good music, good company.  What else do you need?

The New Town Hall on Marienplatz in Munich.

Sara being silly by one of the fountains in Munich.

Yeah, Pam and I got some funny looks for drinking water in one of the most famous beer halls in all of Germany, that's just how we roll:)

The food at the Hofbrauhaus is very traditional German food.

It was 9:00 by the time we finished dinner but it's never too late for a scoop of gelato!

After our gelato we drove back home for the night.  It was good to come home and sleep in my own bed again but we were off for another adventure on Wednesday...stay posted.

RSP reunion Part I

RSP stands for Rachelle, Sara, Pam or, as we like to think, Really Special People.  I met Pam when I was in 4th grade and then we met Sara shortly after that.  We have been friends through all these years and it was so fantastic to get together and catch up.  Pam's husband Duke also came for the visit but it was really all about us girls:)

They flew into Nuremberg on Friday, October 14th.  They were completely worn out from their flight and so we just headed home and they all took naps while Julian and I bakes some cookies.  We enjoyed our Friday night tradition of pizza and a movie.  It was fun to have a relaxing first day.  We made up for it the next 6 days...keep reading!

Saturday was a bright, sunny day so we all headed out to Regensburg for a boat ride down the Danube river to the Weltenberg monastery.  The boat ride was gorgeous, it takes you through a beautiful gorge with towering granite walls on either side.  The monastery is always fun to walk around, the church is beautiful, but the boys favorite thing to do there is skip rocks.  The beach is full of perfect skipping rocks and so we spent a lot of time down by the water.

The Durtschi family on the boat ride.

RSP (Rachelle, Sara, Pam)

Pam and Duke on the boat.  That is the Weltenberg monastery in the background.

After our fun boat ride and yummy dinner at the monastery we drove about 1/2 hour to Regensberg.  This is a great old city to wander around.  We saw all the highlights and ended our day with the best bratwurst and sauerkraut in all of Germany.

Pam and Duke hiking up a bell tower to get a view of Regensberg

Sara at the top of the bell tower...what a beautiful day!

St. Peters Cathedral in Regensberg

Sunday also turned out to be a gorgeous day.  After church we headed over to Flossenburg.  First we hiked the hill up to some very old and cool castle ruins and then we walked around the concentration camp a bit.  Unfortunately the museum at the concentration camp was closed but it was still a good experience to walk around and feel the quiet of that place.

Flossenburg castle ruins

RSP on top of the castle

Jewish memorial at the concentration camp

Memorial garden at the concentration camp with the crematorium in the background.  

There you have it, our first few days of what would turn out to be a fantastic week.