Frustration at the Kino

Today is a national holiday in Germany -- the religious feast day Corpus Christi. Stores are closed and there is no school. One thing you can do today, however, is go to the movie theater. Today is a perfect day to see a movie because stores at the mall where our local movie theater is located are closed. That means we can find a parking spot!

Parking at our mall is a big issue. I discovered our first year here that if I arrived at the mall at 9:15 (stores open at 9:30), I would have my choice of parking spots. When I would leave the store less than an hour later, people would be following me in their cars to take my parking spot. It seems that most shoppers will arrive right at or soon after 9:30 (Germans are known for their punctuality) and do a good job at filling up all the parking lots. If the kids need something at the mall on a Saturday ( the worst day of the week to go shopping), and it's already past 10:00, David will take them because I get too frustrated driving around trying to find a spot. On some weekends and during Christmastime, people end up parking all down the ramps and on the highway. 

One day  I thought I'd take the kids to see a movie on a Sunday, thinking we would have no problems as the mall is closed on Sundays. Except for a few Sundays a year when it is open due to a national holiday closure earlier in the week.  It was one of those Sundays.  I circled the mall 3 times and just gave up and returned home.

And so, we take advantage of Sundays and holidays. I've wanted for a while now to see How to Train Your Dragon and was looking forward to seeing it in 3D today -- even if it was going to be auf Deutsch. At the ticket counter, I asked for 1 adult ticket and 4 children's tickets. The cashier asked the ages of the kids and I told her, thinking the younger ones might get a discount. Was I wrong!

The cashier shook her head and said, "This movie is only for kids 6 and older. Your youngest child is too little for the movie." My heart sank and I remembered hearing about this exact situation from other people. Our friend Dina just reminded me on Facebook about how she took her kids to see one of the new Star Wars films several years ago. It was rated for kids 12 years and older, so her then 10- and 11-year olds were not allowed in. Can you imagine? An 11-year old not being allowed in to see a Star Wars film?  The guidelines changed and today, a child older than 6 can see moves with that rating if they are accompanied by a grownup.

I knew it was hopeless, but tried with a "But I'm the mother and can I not make these decisions for my child?" And then I even gave the cashier a sly smile and said, "Wait, I was mistaken. My youngest is 6." She wasn't buying it. Then I asked what other movies were playing and none that Becca could see interested the others.  It was the Dragon, or nothing.

In the end, I bought tickets for the Micaela, James and Emilie to see How to Train Your Dragon and Becca and me tickets for The Frog and the Princess. As I got Becca settled in her seat -- right next to the only two other people in the entire theater because you get an assigned seat and they squish the audience together-- I fumed silently, "Great. I'm paying to watch a movie that we already have at home on DVD!"

The older kids loved How to Train Your Dragon and David has gone on record, via Facebook, as saying that once we're all back in Atlanta, he'll take me to see it.  In English.

Moving Home: Souvenirs

It's hard to believe that we'll be moving back to the U.S. in six weeks. We'll be moving back to the Atlanta area, though south of the city instead of north of the city where we used to live. David's new job will be at the airport and if we moved back north of the city, it could easily take him over 2½ hours to get to work every day.

We're looking at moving to Peachtree City, a town known for being home to airline employees (over 20% of the adult population works in the industry)and its golf carts. The town was planned out in the 1950s in such a way that there are 90 miles of paths criss crossing the city. People walk, bike and drive their golf carts on these paths to school, stores, church, etc. Over 9000 households own a golf cart, more than any other city in the world. And kids as young as 12 can drive one with an adult sitting up front with them. In July 2009, Money magazine ranked Peachtree City eighth on its list of the 100 Best Places to Live in the United States.

Things are starting to move along for us. David left Germany on Sunday and is beginning his new job with Lufthansa today. The kids and I will remain here in Germany to finish out the school year. In the meantime, David will be checking out homes for sale that we have been keeping track of on-line. There's no guarantee that we will end up in Peachtree City, but it's our focus city for now.

With less than two months to go, we have all begun reflecting on our time here in Germany. People have begun asking us what we will miss and what we have missed from the U.S. I am already planning blog entries about that.

For the moment, I have begun a new series: Moving Back to the U.S. Any time I think, "Oh, I should blog about that before we move home," I'm going to unceremoniously blog about it. Nothing fancy and undoubtedly random.

And here's my first entry. My bag collection.

My good friend Kathy had the right idea before she moved here. She told each of her children to pick out something they would like to collect on their travels here in Europe. Her daughter chose city landmark figurines, her son chose magnets. They have traveled extensively and at each stop, the kids have found a souvenir.

I wasn't that forward thinking. During our first year here, I noticed tote bags with city names on them from all over the world. They were especially popular at the kids' school, where people come from everywhere. I've seen these Robin Ruth bags from New York, Jamaica, Istanbul, Amsterdam, Sarajevo, Seoul, etc. Only after a year did it occur to me to begin my own collection, and Micaela has collected some as well. If you find one on your travels, just be sure not to take off the rubber Robin Ruth tag. It's like cutting a tag of your beanie baby!

Emilie's Birthday

Our busy birthday season begins on May 20th with Micaela's birthday and then just 4 short days later, it's Emilie's birthday. Then, Rebecca's is June 21st. Three birthdays in a month. Yikes! We get a two month break until James' birthday arrives on August 30th.

Emilie's first gifts of the day were a day off school, a trip to Burg Eltz and a wooden sword.

Micaela didn't want us to take pictures on her birthday, but Emilie thought it would be OK on hers. Becca doesn't look happy that all these presents are for her big sister.

Opening the big one

Just what she wanted -- the Playmobil Egyptian Pyramid. Em has been studying Egypt at school and found it all fascinating.

Get ready, Micaela. You and James are going to have to put this together.

Playmobil makes great toys, but they can be pricey in the U.S. Here in Germany, Playmobil sets costs significantly less. That gets a thumbs-up from me.

Micaela and James getting down to work

Here's Em's cake -- a heart-shaped one baked in a pottery bowl I bought in Poland.

Emilie requested Moosetracks ice cream for her birthday, which we cannot find in Germany. A few times, we've made our own with vanilla ice cream, chocolate syrup and diced Reese's Peanut Butter cups (although the Reese's froze and were hard to bite). When I went shopping, however, they were all out of Reese's at the story which is not surprising since they only have 4 or 5 packs on the American shelves. I had to improvise. On-line I found a recipe for peanut butter sauce for ice cream. No one complained about the lack of Reese's when they tasted the warm peanutty sauce.

The pyramid comes with gold treasure, pharaohs, scorpions, mummies and grave robbers.

Burg Eltz

The Monday after Pentecost is a national holiday and so David and the kids had a long weekend. We're in the homestretch of our German adventure and one thing I've wanted to do for a while now is visit Burg Eltz, a 12th century castle located in the hills above the Mosel River and only a 1½ hour drive away.

The castle is still owned by a branch of the same family that lived there in the 12th century, 33 generations ago. What makes it a joy to visit is that unlike so many other German castles, this one was attacked only once in the 1300s and was not damaged. This is a perfectly preserved, furnished castle and the exterior has not changed since 1472.

We left home to blue skies and passed the ruins of nearby Eppstein Castle, another 12th century fortress.

We had a calm, leisurely drive through the Taunus Mountains. Our town is offically called Liederbach am Taunus, but is really located at the foot of the mountains. We can see the mountains, though, from our bedroom window.

An old-fashioned McDonald's restaurant with the single arches

We passed field after field of colorful rapeseed which is used to make vegetable oil and biofuel. When our navi indicated that we were within 5 minutes of the castle, I began videotaping, hoping to capture that moment the striking fortress came into view. But it never did.  It's nestled in the hills and cannot be seen from the the highway.

In the castle parking lot, there was a sign for a shuttle bus. We asked some of the people lingering about how the hike to the castle was and they said, "Well, it is steep...." We decided, between my sore foot and a four-year old with little legs, we'd be better off taking the shuttle. It was with much embarrassment that we exited the shuttle van just 30 seconds after the trip to the castle began. You see, the castle is nestled in a valley and so the trip to it was downhill and took less than a minute. Even Rebecca's little legs and my sore foot could have made that trek no problem.

Alas, the view of the castle was marred by scaffolding and a large crane. But I just shrugged my shoulders. I knew I would be able to find a nice picture of it on-line.

Approaching the castle

Looking back at the ruins of a smaller fortress built by Baldwin of Luxembourg who unsuccessfully laid siege to Burg Eltz in the 1300s...after five years he gave up.

Taking photos of this fortress is a challenge. The walls are so tall and you don't have enough room to back up to try to capture it all.

We had time before our English-language tour to visit the Treasure Vault. This statue of St. John Nepomuk, known as "Healer of the Bridge" or the silent martyr, is made of silver and partly gilded, and is one of the highlights of the collection. It was created by Franz Christoph Mäderl in Augsburg in 1752. St. John Nepomuk is the patron saint of the house of Eltz and traditionally every male family member carries his name.

Many medieval weapons were on display

This drinking vessel "Gluttony conveyed by Drunkeness"

In the inner courtyard

Waiting for our tour to begin

Eyes were on us

Rain spout. Do you think we can find one like that at Home Depot?

Pretty Madonna and child

Century after century, more would be added to the castle

Stone catapult siege balls.

We had a wonderful tour of some of the rooms of the castle, but alas, no photography or filming was allowed.  I figured I would find photos of the interior on the internet, but the family must guard such pictures very carefully.  I found nothing I could use.  I plan on buying a book on-line as so much of the interior was very beautiful and very picturesque.

We learned about how three branches of the same family lived in the castle, in separate sections, for hundreds of years, often trying to outdo each other with the building and decor of their section.

I especially like seeing the medieval toilets, which I had never seen in any other castle, but had just been featured in an episode of The Tudors. It was designed so that rainwater (and there is no shortage of rainwater in Germany) cleans the toilet.

Looking over the valley

The little sitting area of the café

Waiting for our lunch order

The charming part of the castle housed the restrooms

Emilie has been wanting a sword for a long time and since today is her birthday, we bought her one in the gift shop.  Becca pitched a fit as we did not buy her one.  We should have in retrospect; her birthday is only a month away.

We decided to hike back up to the parking lot so we could try to get some better photos.  The kids were not thrilled, but we made it.

I was finally able to capture the Burg without the scaffolding and cropped out the crane.

Stations of the cross lined the path up to the parking lot

View of the fortress

Lovely view

Many buildings in the villages near the castle were built with these dark bricks

Beautiful countryside

Just another castle on another hillside