Happy Easter

We celebrated Easter in two parts this year.  The first was an Easter egg hunt that we shared with our friends, the Platt family.  I had almost 100 eggs hidden around the yard and this year we tried to hide them in tougher spots so the big kids would have a challenge.  Julian loved walking around the yard picking up eggs and putting them in his basket and was very excited when he found out there was candy inside each egg. 

Julian loading up his basket

Townsend had to climb a tree to get this egg!

In the end there were happy kids with chocolate faces

Part two of our celebration was held a week later on Easter Sunday.  The Easter bunny visited the boys and brought them some treats.  It's so fun to celebrate holidays with the boys because they still believe in the Easter bunny, leprechauns, Santa and the tooth fairy.  I think it will be sad when they finally discover the truth but for now I love the excitement that holidays bring.

Emerson and Townsend with their Easter treats.  Inside the Easter egg was a small figure of a winged lion, the symbol of Venice (more to come on that adventure)

Julian spent about 5 minutes unwrapping this chocolate bunny and then only ate one bite.  Those who know me well know that I certainly didn't mind having an uneaten chocolate rabbit left at the breakfast table...mmmmm.

A picture of our Bavarian Easter egg tree.  I love the festive look of all the decorated trees here in Bavaria.  We traveled a lot this Easter season and we have found that this is truly a Bavarian tradition.  Other parts of Germany and other countries in Europe don't really decorate like this.

Two Wonderful Weekends in Rhineland

I am desperately trying to keep caught up on this blog.  We have been traveling a lot lately for a few reasons.  One reason is my sister Paige will be leaving in a few weeks and I want to spend as much time as I can with her and and the second reason is that Oma is here for a visit and it's fun to take her around and explore new parts of Germany.

On April 2nd I left the boys with Oma and Daddy and made a trip out to visit Paige.  It's not a bad 3 1/2 hour drive if you don't have kids in the car.  I really have loved having Paige within visiting distance, I am going to miss her a lot!  We went to our favorite restaurant in Kaiserslautern, the Himilaya, and stayed up way too late watching tv and eating ice-cream...I love sister time:)

On April 3rd we headed up into the Mosel Valley, about an hour and a half north of her house.  The weather was supposed to be beautiful and we wanted to explore this valley with, "peaceful, sleepy, romantic villages slipped between the steep vineyards and the river."  (Sometimes Rick Steves explains it best!)

Unfortunately, almost as soon as we arrived in Cochem it started to sprinkle rain and halfway through our tour of the castle it was really pouring down.  But, on the plus side, the town of Cochem was having a festival that day and so we got to walk through the market square and enjoy browsing through the vendors and sampling gelato and bratwurst on our way.

The GPS decided to take us home on the "scenic" route, which was fine except I don't do real well on windy roads and there were quite a few windy roads in and among the valley, plus it took us twice as long to get home...I'm not really sure we were enjoying much of the scenery after two hours in a car with rain and fog outside:)

Paige and I, about halfway up the hill to the castle.  This hill starts out pretty steep and then gets extremely steep as you continue on your way.  At least we got our workout for the day!

At the entrance to Cochem castle.  This castle was completely destroyed in 1689 by the French.  It lay in ruins until 1868 when a very wealthy man from Berlin decided to buy and restore the castle.  He spent almost his entire fortune and 10 years of his life restoring the castle.  The sad news, he died shortly after the castle was completed.

A view from the top of the castle hill.  You can see the Mosel river and hills with vineyards in the background.  You can also see the crummy rain clouds that ruined our day!

This suit of armor was on display in the castle.  This was actually made for a knight that was over 7 feet tall.  Imagine seeing this guy come charging on his horse toward you!

The following weekend we decided to take the whole family to visit Paige and to visit the Rhine Valley. The weather was spectacular!  We even got a little sunburned playing outside all weekend.  We left on April 8th around 9:00 AM and got to Paige's house around 1:00 PM.  Not too bad considering we had the kids in the car and we had to stop for a potty/run around and get wiggles out break.  Our first stop was the wonderful dinosaur park in Kaiserslautern.  My boys have been here a few times but they always enjoy running around, climbing up towers, sliding down giant slides, playing in the water and swinging in giant basket swings until they feel nauseous!  Sadly, Paige had to leave to catch a flight to Southern France but it was lots of fun to see her for a few hours and of course, totally awesome that we could stay in her apartment for free all weekend:)

Julian getting his feet wet at the park.  He was a little nervous about taking his shoes off.  He hasn't been barefoot since last summer and I'm sure he doesn't remember that so it was pretty cute to see him walk around gently on his little soft feet.

Auntie Paige with the craziest lot out of her 15 nephews!

The next day, April 9th, we headed up to St. Goar on the Rhine River.  Once again the sun was out and it was a wonderful day to be on vacation.  We took a boat ride from St. Goar to the town of Bacharach, wandered around the cute town for a few hours and then took the train back to St. Goar.  The river boat ride was wonderful.  There was a nice breeze on the river and the boat wasn't over crowded.  The boys enjoyed a snack while we cruised for an hour on the Rhine.  We played "spot the castle" and I think after they found about 12 castles on the hilltops along the route they got tired of the game.  Needless to say the scenery along this stretch of the river is beautiful with castles and ruins around every corner.

The boys throwing rocks into the river as we wait for our boat ride.

Oma enjoying the beautiful scenery.

The town of Bacharach has about 10 wells that the boys just had to throw money into to make wishes.  Some of them were pretty funny, "I wish I can be spoiled" or "I wish to eat only candy every day."

A view of Bacharach from the top of a vineyard.  

Oh gelato, where would I be without you?  You come to our rescue when our boys are spent with walking around old towns.  You're always good on a nice hot day.  You bring me joy.  I will miss you when I move.

Back in the town of St. Goar.  The main attraction here is the ruined Rheinfels castle.  The best part of this castle is that it is already in ruins, so my boys can't really destroy anything as they climb, run and jump around.  Here they are posed on top of a pile of catapult balls.  These balls were expensive to make so after a battle the soldiers would have to go outside the castle walls and retrieve all the catapulted rocks.

This castle was great for exploring.  There were staircases that led to empty, secret rooms.  There were tunnels to crawl through.  There were walls to walk around and explore.  Not many rooms remain in tact but the sheer size of this ruin makes it fun to explore.

The boys were pretty well spent by about 3:00 PM.  Unfortunately this meant we had to scrap our plan of visiting Burg Eltz, which Paige and I had wanted to visit last weekend but scrapped because of crummy weather.  

April 10th we woke up and decided the weather was simply too gorgeous to just pack up in the car and head out so we decided to take a hike up to the castle ruins in Paige's little town of Hohenecken.  

Oma and Julian explore the ruins.

Family photo op at the castle.

We could not have asked for better weather, for a nicer place to stay (thanks Paige) or for any more scenic locations than we got to visit this weekend. 

When the Weather is Warm...

...We Durtschis get out and enjoy the day!  We have been really lucky here in Bavaria to have such wonderful weather the last few weeks.  March and April tend to be very cloudy and rainy so it's a real treat to see so much sunshine.  As I am writing this the forecast for tomorrow is rain, so as you can see from the photos it really has been exceptionally beautiful around here.

Oma and Emerson on one of our favorite hikes, to the top of Rauher Kulm.

Daddy and Julian hiking up the hill.

Oma and the boys enjoy the view from the top of the lookout tower.

Emerson at a playground in Bayreuth.

Julian loves to throw rocks in the water.

Oma and Julian enjoying a walk in the sunshine.

I love this photo of Oma and the boys in the Hof Garten in Bayreuth.  The leaves are just beginning to come out, the grass is turning emerald green and the boys get to spend time with their Oma, what a treat.

It was even warm enough yesterday for Emerson to get a haircut, minus his shirt, from Oma.

I know that rain must fall in order to enjoy the lush beauty of Bavaria, but I sure do love it when it's sunny!!!

Gymnastics

Townsend and Emerson participated in their schools gymnastics program.  They met twice a week for two months.  I was so impressed with how much they learned in such a short time.  I know they both enjoyed gymnastics, hopefully we will be able to enroll them in a class next year.  Their coach, Mr. Gray, had his hands full with the two of them.  They are pretty crazy after school and when they are together it gets worse.  I love the photo of the boys with Mr. Gray at the end of the video...he is such a great teacher.

The video shows Townsend on the parallel bars and Emerson on the rings.  I am so lucky to have two healthy, active boys...even if they drive me crazy at times:)

Paris Day Three

On our last day in Paris we had to decide between two wonderful options.  Option 1: travel out of the city to visit the Palace of Versailles.  Option 2: Walk around the city of Paris more and enjoy some museums and neighborhoods that we hadn't had the chance to see before.  It was a tough choice but we chose option 2.  We figured we could take the boys to Versailles at some point because the gardens and palace would be fun for them to explore but we could never take the boys on a walking tour of Paris, hitting multiple museums in one day.

After a quick stop at our local bakery we headed up to Montmartre.  This neighborhood is known for it's beautiful church, artists and dance halls.  This is where Picasso, Braque, Toulouse-Lautrec and Van Gogh spent their time in Paris.

Hyrum poses with our delicious breakfast...a warm, crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside, baguette.

The first stop on our Montmartre tour was the basilica of Sacré-Cœur.  This was a beautiful five-domed structure with white gypsum stuccoed onto the exterior.  This church was dedicated in 1919, after 44 years of construction.  An interesting tidbit: someone has been praying for peace in this church 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year since this church was dedicated.  They rotate people every few hours but someone is assigned to pray so that every hour in the day is covered.

There were so many amazing mosaics in this church but the one above the altar was simply incredible!

Our next stop was the Place du Tertre.  This was the main square for this neighborhood and every inch was taken up by artists selling their work or by cafes.  I loved walking around looking at all the artwork and enjoying the unique style of each artist.

Montmartre was originally a farming community with vineyards and gardens surrounding the hillside.  Today only one vineyard survives.  Ever since the 12th century this vineyard has been looked after by the monks of Clos Montmartre.  They produce only 300 liters of wine a year and they auction this off the first weekend of October for local charities.

This was the studio where Picasso spent nine months working on a major canvas.  When he unveiled Les Demoiselles d'Avignon his fellow artists were shocked and confused.  Picasso had invented Cubism.

Les Demoiselles d'Avignon by Pablo Picasso

What better spot to end our Montmartre tour than at the Moulin Rouge.  I am so happy that we got to walk around and enjoy this very unique and historic neighborhood in Paris.

After a quick bite to eat in a yummy riverside cafe we headed to the Pompidou museum for a look at possibly the best collection of 20th century artwork in Europe.  This is a photo of me trying to understand the Jackson Pollock painting on the wall.  I truly enjoy modern art but sometimes even I wonder at what the artist was trying to portray.  Some of my favorite artists were on display here, Picasso, Braque, Chagall, Matisse, Mondrian, Dali and Pollock.  Simply amazing...what else can I say?

After the Pompidou museum we went back to the Louvre to finish seeing some things we had missed out on seeing Day one.  Here is the photo I promised of the Mona Lisa during peak visiting hours.  I'm so glad we had the chance to view it right before the museum closed and the crowds had gone, this day it was pure madness in front of DaVinci's smiling lady.  

These are Michelangelo's Slaves.  It was so impressive to see how he carved these statues as though he were freeing them from the marble they were captured in.  We also saw some French Romantic period art pieces, including Delacoix's Liberty Leading the People. 

The largest canvas in the whole museum was Jacques-Louis David's The Coronation of Napoleon.  There were so many famous pieces of artwork, it truly was overwhelming yet at the same time exhilarating to see firsthand so many works I had only seen in books.

Our time is Paris was coming to a close.  We had only one hour left before we had to catch the train to the airport.  We had found a bakery a few days before that sold the most delicious treats and we spent our last hour in Paris desperately searching for this particular bakery.  When you tour a city in three days all the streets begin to run together so you can't quite remember where you were at a particular moment.  We almost gave up hope of finding the bakery until we remembered it was located near the Orsay museum.  We hustled over to that part of town, found the bakery and enjoyed one last Parisian treat before leaving for Germany.  This chocolate cake I am holding was truly worth the mad dash around Paris to find!

We flew home to find all well with Oma and the boys.  I am so grateful that Hyrum and I got the chance to spend a few days together to celebrate my birthday and to renew our love for one another.  What better place than in romantic, lovely, historic and beautiful Paris?

Paris Day Two

Day two started off a little rough.  Our camera battery had died the night before and our extra battery that we brought (just in case) was actually dead.  So, Hyrum set off early Tuesday morning in search of a charger for our camera.  Two hours and €30 later he came back to the hotel with a charger...I was still in bed asleep.  I got in the shower to get ready for the day and when I came out Hyrum had set out the most wonderful birthday breakfast anyone could ever ask for.  He had bagettes with brie and mandarin oranges and chocolate croissants.  What a way to celebrate turning 34 years old.  In Paris with the man I love.  How did I get so lucky?

My birthday breakfast, did I forget to mention he brought me fresh flowers too?

We started our day at Notre-Dame Cathedral.  They broke ground for this Cathedral in 1163 AD and held it's dedicatory Mass in 1345 AD.  It must have been so hard for the early masons to spend so much time working on a Cathedral that they knew they would never see completed.  The gargoyles were fun to look at, it's interesting to imagine what the carvers were thinking as they made those strange looking creatures that were meant to adorn their Cathedral.

One of the rose windows inside Notre-Dame.  This particular window is the only remaining window in the church with original glass.

We were very lucky to have such beautiful weather.  It was also nice to have all the flowers and trees with new leaves in the gardens.  The whole city was fresh and green.

The windows of Sainte-Chapelle.  When you walk into Sainte-Chapelle you enter on the ground level into a small room.  You look around and think, well I guess this is an interesting Cathedral.  Then you notice a small sign directing you up some very narrow winding stairs.  When you come out at the top of the stairs...BOOM, this amazing room hits you.  The light coming through these windows is incredible.  Everywhere you look you see light and color and height.  You can't stop turning in circles to be sure you have seen all the windows.  This Cathedral was built to display the "crown of thorns" worn by Christ at his crucifixion.  An interesting bit of information, the relic that was to be displayed cost FOUR times as much as it cost to build the Cathedral.

Our next stop was the Conciergerie, the famous prison that housed those destined for the guillotine.  This was the "ladies courtyard" where female prisoners were allowed to get some fresh air.  Those are the same spikes that Marie-Antoinette would have looked up and seen.

 The Orsay museum was not originally on our list of "must sees" in Paris because neither Hyrum nor I particularly enjoy impressionist painting but, as Rick Steves puts it, "If you like Impressionism, visit this museum.  If you don't like Impressionism, visit this museum."  This museum is housed in what once was the train station for Paris, so just walking around in this building was worth our time, all though we ended up really enjoying the artwork as well.

Dance at the Moulin de la Galette by Renoir

My favorite piece at the museum was La Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans by Degas.  I remember learning of this sculpture in my Humanities class and I loved it for the simplicity of the pose and look on her face. 

Unfortunately the museum was under renovation and so we missed out on seeing Van Gogh but we did see Monet, Manet, Cézanne, Rousseau and Gauguin.  I highly recommend brushing up on your art history before a visit to Paris, it truly makes the entire experience more meaningful.

The weather turned rainy and made for a sloshy walk around rue Cler.  This pedestrian only street is lined with shops for everyday Parisian living.  The essentials: wine, cheese, chocolate and bread!  The mixture of smells as you walk down this street is truly an experience.

We got sidetracked on our walk through the Jewish quarter.  A man came up to us and told us we had to eat one of his falafels, that they are the best falafels in the whole world.  There were newspaper clippings on the outside of the restaurant claiming they were the best falafels, so we gave it a shot.  Mmmmm, I will agree with the New York Times, really the best falafels!

The Pompidou museum was closed when we got there but the outside architecture is almost as famous as the art inside the building, so we took a picture.

The altar of Notre-Dame at night.  Oma gave me some money for my birthday and told me to spend it on something I wouldn't normally get for myself.  As we walked around Notre-Dame that morning I noticed there would be an organ concert that night.  The tickets were kind of pricey but I couldn't think of a better way to spend my birthday money than sitting inside a 700 year old Cathedral listening to organ music.  What a treat!

A picture of the organ situated in front of a rose window.  Even at night the windows were beautiful.

It was pretty late when the concert was over but I just had to see the Eiffel Tower one more time at night.  

Day two of our trip was busy and full of memorable experiences.  I think 34 will be a pretty good age for me, it sure started off wonderful.