Mainau Island...

For our most recent adventure, we were determined to make the weekend more fun for the children. While we love seeing Europe, it is not particularly child-friendly, and most of the sights are more for us than them. So for the first part of our trip, we headed to Lake Konstanz-a magnificently beautiful lake on the borders of Germany, Austria and Switzerland: There are a variety of places to visit near this beautiful lake, but we decided to go straight to this tiny island dedicated to family (mostly children's) fun! The Island of Mainau!
This is the big kids and me at the entrance ( I was feeling tropical so I wore my Hawaiian skirt!):

Mainau is like this perfect blend of Tropical Island meets Alpine glory... it was truly beautiful!

Our first stop for the kiddos was the awesome petting zoo... You could actually go into the goat pen and feed the goats, which all of the kids loved (especially Victoria!)

They also had rabbits, chickens, and other animals. The kids LOVED it! And, very uncharacteristically, they provided a sink where we could wash their hands afterward. Yay for cleanliness- Mainau gets a gold star for that one!

We headed to the horse pen, where the kids each got to ride a little horse. Also a big hit!

Isaac doing his imitation of a bull ride and shouting, "Yee Haw!"

Simply gorgeous! The kids and I are actually in this one in the middle (click on the pic to see us!)

Aaaahhhh....

After all the animal and flower fun, we stopped and had a little picnic and Miss Tori fell asleep for a much needed rest (that's why you can't see her in our family shot from the island)

This picture makes my heart happy:

Here is a beautiful Baroque Palace that really didn't interest our crew too much. But I guess you can tell that from their faces:

More beautiful gardens:

They had these really cool looking wooden carvings little tiki guys, a mushroom table, a little wooden tree house and this guy (whom Tori wanted to pat):

After exploring all the beautiful garden areas, we went over to the incredible playground areas:

They had five or six different playground areas all within one big section of the island, including this water play area. It had a very Huckleberry Finn feel:

We were a little worried about the water- We thought they might get dysentary or something... Matt kept running around telling them not to open their mouths or touch their faces or anything. But they did have lots of fun!

Teeter Totter: Matt and Tori vs. Isaac and Daphne!

After the playground, we headed over to the Butterfly Gardens, which was so cool!

They had an incredible variety of butterfly species, all different colors and sizes, some that were as big as Isaac's head.

After we headed off the Island, we had to catch a ferry to our next leg of our trip, which was also a big hit for the children:

When we walked out to our car, we found the back left tire had a slow leak and was almost completely deflated. Everyone was tired and hungry and when we tried to find a repair shop on our GPS, everything was closed. I kept trying to look on the GPS for help and call the rental company for help, while Matt searched around for a solution. He eventually pulled out the little hand-pump that I keep in the back of the jogging stroller ans, by hand, pumped up the back tire of our SUV!! He's like my own personal MacGyver! Seriously, it was tedious and laborious and pain-staking, but he saved the day. And then we drove out of Mainau Island looking for some dinner.

Now, I really meant to tell this story last week in my post about Berlin, but I forgot, so I'll tell it now... We were on the tour bus in Berlin and trying to find somewhere to eat. We met this couple from Minnesota, I think, and we were asking them if they know of a restaurant close by. They mentioned one place to us and then said, "And then, of course, there is Mickey D's". We said, "Oh- well, we kind of agreed that we would try not to eat at McDonald's while we are here. We figure that we are in Germany and we should try to eat the local food, you know?" And they said, "Oh. Well we eat at Mickey D's at least once a day."

What? Once a Day? Matt and I struggled to compose our faces and not to snicker our heads off. We found this to be quite humorous....

Now, fast forward to our drive away from Mainau:

After all of our tropical fun, we had a two hour drive to our hotel in Reutte, Austria
The kids were tired and hungry and we had a recommendation for a great Thai restaurant near Lake Konstanz. We drove around trying to find it and realized that we would have to stop and park and search on foot if we were going to be successful. The kids were so hungry and it was late and we had a long drive ahead of us. So, we looked up nearby restaurants in our GPS.
And there it was:
McDonald's.
1/2 a kilometer away. Matt and I looked at eachother and our hungry, sleepy children. And then we shrugged. What's the harm in one McDonald's trip? So we pushed the button and found it in no time. We parked and walked in and then we saw it: Fountain Drinks with Free Refills.

An Ice Machine.

Free Bathrooms-wait let me check:

Free, Clean Bathrooms!

And a menu almost completely in English.
We ordered and the kids got Happy Meals with toys and they even gave us free hot water for Victoria's bottle.

Now, prehaps you cannot fully appreciate what all of these things meant to us. But nothing is free in Europe. Not water, not bathrooms, (not air for your tires) certainly not ice and especially not soda. You pay for everything here. All of those little details that we consider to be part of our "certain unalienable rights" like free ice water and free baskets of rolls or chips and using the bathroom, are priced exorbatently here.

Extra rolls? That'll be another $5.

Water? That'll be $2.50.

The Bathroom? 75 cents. per person. So we spend like $4 if we all have to use the facilities.

Ice? Nope. Not even for a price.

That McDonald's was like a sanctuary. Like a bastion of hope for our downtrodden American spirits. I imagined it as a safehaven; an American Embassy of Restaurants, if you will.

I ate chicken nuggets for dinner and they tasted delicious to me! Isaac and Daphne each had a happy meal complete with an American toy. I washed Tori up in the sink and got her changed into her jammies. The kids played on the playland and I ate a side salad. A real salad with green leaf lettuce!

I take back laughing at you, you smart couple from Minnesota. I blame you no more! I'm so sorry I laughed.

And I am not ashamed to say, I dreamed about McDonald's that night. And they were pleasant dreams.

Pools and Palaces

The typical daily weather here is cloudy and mild and it usually stays in the 70's and 80's. It usually rains a little every day, which gets old after a while! So, if the day starts out cloudless or looks like it is going to get into the upper 80's, we head to the pool! It's kind of interesting to see the differing styles of pool ettiquette here in Europe. Most men and boys wear speedo type swim-suits. Lots of the young children (including girls) wear only swim bottoms.
They do have these fabulous sections with sand and water, where children can play in what I can only describe as a life-sized Sand and Water Table. Isaac and Daphne often spend more time there than in the pool.
These have been Tori's first experiences with swimming and she loves the water! As a matter of fact, I could hardly get her to look at the camera, she just wanted to look at the water! My sweet, helpful Isaac sat here with her for a long time so I could try to get a picture of her, but she just wanted to get back in the water....

She particularly enjoys this little slide in the children's pool!

On Tuesday night we went with our friends Steve and Liz to visit Schloss Solitude, which is the palace that is practically in our backyard- only like ten minutes from our hotel:

We took a picnic lunch and had dinner on the lawn in front of the palace, with a gorgeous view of Stuttgart out in front of us:

Tori liked the picnic better than the palace, especially when she got into the powdered donuts!

Isaac in front of the palace:

Our family is on the top of the balcony here

And here, closer up:

Miss Daphne and Mister Isaac:

Walking back to the car...

Berlin- Day 2

Day 2 in Berlin started out much better than Day 1. We found a meetinghouse for our church to attend there, and it was the first time we attended a German-speaking congregation here (the congregation we attend in Stuttgart is made up of mostly military and is English-speaking). It was a very interesting experience and was really awesome to hear the same hymns in German. We were so moved to see the gospel articulated in another language, and to know that here we were halfway across the world, and hearing the same teachings we would hear in our home congregation. Some sweet missionaries from the United States translated for us once the service began. The people were so nice and were telling us what other sights to see and visit before we headed out. They even invited us back to the Church building for lunch! We felt like we had found a little slice of home right in the middle of Berlin.
So we headed out to see our last few sights, and our first stop was The Victory Column, or the Statue of Victoria. Since we have our own little Victoria, we are here pointing at our Tori, who is fast asleep in the stroller:

This is us walking away from the Victoria. We were commenting as we walked down this tree-lined walk that it both looked and felt more like late September than Late July:

We found some WWII Rubble-turned-artistic-fountain...here is Isaac on top

(you can see our next stop in the background):

We passed the Berlin Zoo, which is supposed to be incredible, but we didn't really have time for a stop there. We had to settle for a picture with the huge stone elephants guarding the entrance:

Afterward, we mosied on to this truly spectacular sight... It is a church that was bombed during WWII and instead of being re-furbished, chose to keep the destroyed building and build new, modern structures around it. Their goal is to remind everyone of the horrible atrocities of war in hopes that we might avoid war in the future. The building directly to the right is one of the new buildings used by the church.

The ceiling inside the marred building:

Inside there is a replica of the building before the bombing:

And after:

Here's my happy crew out front... in stark contrast to the mood of the surroundings...

Our cars were parked relatively close to the Church building, so we headed back over and found ourselves there toward the end of their lunch. They were so kind and ushered us in, regretting that the food was gone, but the British bishopric member urged us to jump in and grab the desserts they were bringing out. We hung back, afraid to be rude and he said (in English), "Come On! Grab some. We're not polite! It's Germany!" Nicely Said. Nicely Said. And so we did! After thanking them profusely for their hospitality, we jumped in our car and stopped by the flea market on the way out of Berlin. We had hoped to find some souveniers there, but we settled for a Brat stand and some yummy ice cream. I know I have been quick to rag on Germany for their lack of generous portions and over-priced ice, soda and water. So, I must be quick to praise the fabulous ice cream you can find just about anywhere. It is actually Italian Gellato, but it is excellent and very reasonably priced. Those of you who know me, must know what a consolation this is for my taste buds! Yum, Yum!

Berlin- Day 1

We got kind off kind of to a rough start in Berlin... We were determined not to arrive in Berlin as late as we got to Paris (which was about midnight) So, Matt went into work at 6 am so that he could leave early. Yay! We got a head start, but still managed to hit a lot of traffic on the Autobahn :(. So after all our planning, we got to the street our hotel was on at about midnight. I say we got to the street because half of the street was closed (the half in front of our hotel) so you could only go one way on the street. We kept driving through the back streets and making u turn after u turn tyring to get there. Matt finally figured out a way to get us there and so we actually got into the hotel at more like 12:30/12:45. Apparently, We just don't feel like we are having a fun weekend if we don't start things out completely exhausted!
We wanted to try to hit the Reichstag (the German Parliament building) first thing because the crowds are supposed to be so bad, but alas, we were not really prepared to be out of the hotel early enough. Our friends, Steve and Liz , were brave enough to venture to Berlin with us (despite all the ruckus in France) and we all decided to try a hop-on hop-off tour bus rather than walk ourselves to death again!
Matt and I got to our meeting place 45 minutes early because we were so determined not to make Steve and Liz wait for us! It took us a good half hour to find somewhere to park, so we really ended up being barely on time!
But, while we were waiting for the Tour bus, Tori fell in a big mud puddle and got her pants soaking wet! All her extra clothes were back in the hotel and it was pretty cool outside, so I took off her pants and wrapped her in Isaac's jacket. She started toddling off with sleeves dragging the ground and I was walking close behind, but struggling to put on my sweater... and then she fell, and, not being able to catch herself because of Isaac's sleeves, she busted her poor little lip open on the craggy cobblestone sidewalk of Berlin! It was so, so , so sad. We both cried and I felt like the worst mom in the universe. Then later that night, she fell off the bed at the hotel and scraped the other side of her lip and bruised her poor baby head! Here she is in the bath after we got "home" to Stuttgart. You can't really see the bruises, but you can kind of see her lip...The wind just kept blowing, so we all loaded onto the tour bus and headed off to see Berlin! We hopped off at Unter Den Linden, which is the most famous street here:

Our first big stop was the Brandenburg gate, which was originally considered a symbol of peace, the angel on top was called the Goddess of Peace until Napolean captured the statue and put it in the Louvre. When they (the Prussians) finally re-captured it, they re-named it the Goddess of Victory. "Who needs peace- we'd rather win!" But then they re-dedicated it as a symbol of peace after the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989. This is a popular tourist spot, and you can take your picture with just about anyone, some who have nothing to do with Berlin, or peace or WWII or anything:
Isaac was pretty stoked to see a Storm Trooper there, though!

In all the big cities, we have found random people painted with metallic make-up and dressed up like some famous person from the city. You tip them and take a picture and it's got to be a very interesting way to make a living...

And finally after making it through all the other pics, we got a family pic (Tori sans pants, of course)

The Brandenburg Gate from farther away:

Like I said, Just about anyone will get into metallic make-up to make a buck!

Then we headed over to the Reichstag Building... we weren't really planning to make it inside because we had heard that the lines were so very long and it was now after 11.... we thought we would just get some pics out in front and have to miss the tour of the impressive Glass Cupola at the top. :(

The inscription on the top says "For the German People".

Here I am with the kids, Tori sleeping now (You can see the line stretching out in front of the building- it goes way past where we are standing out into the grassy yard.)

But then, this super nice guy came over and told us that he saw our stroller and that there is a family entrance on the side! So we went around to the side and only had to wait behind like four other families to get to the top! It was such a blessing and I think my favorite part of Berlin was not having to wait in that line with my children! I guess that doesn't speak too highly of Berlin, but it's true!

So here are some pics from the Glass Cupola at the top of the Reichstag. Not only is it very beautiful, it is a very "green" way of energizing the building. Although I must say... I'm not as impressed with all their "energy-efficiency" as I'm supposed to be. For a country that rarely has days in the nineties, it probably isn't such a big deal to not have air conditioning. For those of you back home in the blistering heat of Texas and even Utah, for that matter, I think giving up air-conditioning is a much greater sacrifice. I must say though dear,dear Germany: if you are going to boycott air conditioning, I think you should re-consider the boycott of deoderant. I am pretty sure that America's use of deoderant isn't increasing global warming. Just a thought.

The glass cupola was impressive... I must give credit where credit is due!

We all have on little head phones that only cover one ear- if you are wondering!

Inside the dome, a cone of 360 mirrors reflects natural light into the legislative chamber below. Lit from inside at night, the glass dome and mirrored cone give Berlin a very memorable night-light!

Tori wasn't really impressed with all the environmental mumbo- jumbo, "Huh?" she says:

This is the top of the glass cone that my children are sliding down. (They try to be destructive where ever possible.) This draws hot air out of the chamber below and pulls in cool air from below.

Here are Isaac, Daphne and Zack (Steve and Liz's son) on the top of the Reichstag (Notice the ominous clouds behind them):

Those clouds followed through on their threat, so to escape the rain, we headed back to the bus, which quickly lost the initial thrill for Isaac and Daphne:

And here's Tori, in desperate need of more sleep: When the rain subsided, we stopped off at Checkpoint Charlie. This was the most famous border checkpoint between the American and Soviet sectors of Berlin during the Cold War. Just a short distance from the East German Border guards, Checkpoint Charlie stood "defiantly showing off all the clever escapes over, under and through the wall". Over the years, there were over 5000 documented escapes from East Germany into West Germany and 565 of these were East German Guards! Matt and I thought it was pretty amusing that these guys would get assigned as border guards along the gate and then just disappear into American territory.

Here we are (Tori sleeping again):

We were moved by many of the pictures in the museum:

Checkpoint Charlie isn't actually there anymore, just a museum and a re-c
reation of how it looked:

This year in November will mark the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. We went to see the remains of the wall.

The Wall was 100 miles long and was constructed by the East German Government (Russia), to stop the outward flow of people into West Germany (governed by the Allies predominantly the U.S.A, along with Britain and France). Between 1949 and 1961, 3 million people leaked out to West Germany. The 13 foot high wall had a 16 foot tank ditch and a "no-man's land" or death strip. The wall was contructed practically over-night and if you were on the East side, you were not allowed to leave, regardless how many loved ones resided on the Western side. Very sobering thoughts, indeed.

After that, we headed behind the wall to the Topography of Terror exhibit, which marks the site of the Command Center for Hitler's Gestapo and SS. Because of the monstrous atrocities planned here, the rubble of these buildings will always be left as rubble. More cheerful sights in Berlin!

The Topography of Terror was pretty much our final stop for Day One. We headed back to catch the tour bus and actually get our children to bed at a decent hour.... Tori's pants finally dried and we decided to get one more pic of her awake!

So we got back to our car and found that we were a little late for our parking meter. Our meter expired and the meter maid gave us a ticket exactly one minute later! Thanks for all the compassion, Berlin. We love ya!