Meersburg

Meersburg, with a view of Switzerland across the lake

About an hour and a half south of where we live is Lake Constance, called the Bodensee in German.  Over the last year that we have been in Germany, many people have recommended that we visit this lake area and the many quaint towns which surround it. 

Walking along the Promenade with Grandma Theresa

What is interesting about this lake is that it is bordered by three countries: Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.  This area is very popular for tourism for both Germans and International travelers, and draws many cyclers who can easily cycle from town to town all the way around the lake.  Germany has an amazing network of well maintained bike paths that make it safe and easy to travel just about anywhere by bike. 

 

Half-timbered house with waterwheel

The day we visited Meersburg was soon after Dan's mother, Theresa, arrived from Wisconsin for a month long visit.  It was a church holiday (sorry, I forget which one), and most of the shops were closed, but the restaurants and attractions were open.

 

 

The cobbled streets in the older section of town were decorated with flower petals and greenery in honor of the holiday, and it was very nice to wander the streets and see the flowers. 

 



We visited Burg Meersburg, also known as the 'old castle', compared to the newer castle that is also in town. Visiting castles is great with children, because you can really play it up to their imagination.  There was no guided tour, but we purchased a brochure in English, and were able to explore the castle at our own pace (as compared to Neuschwanstein Castle where you are herded through the castle as quickly as possible).

 

We never get tired of visiting these quaint towns, and watching the boats on the lake made for a very relaxing afternoon, despite the crowds.  I look forward to a return trip to the Bodensee to explore some other towns and see what else the area has to offer. 

Our family: Dan, Rachel (me), Ryan (7), and Meredith (4)

Holzmaden Fossil Quarry

A little while back, some friends invited us to go fossil hunting in Holzmaden, about 30 minutes from Ulm.

This is what a 4-year old chooses to wear to dig for fossils!

There was a small exhibition area with fossils and dinosaur bones displayed, but since the informational plaques were in German, we didn't quite understand all the details provided.  

 

 The quarry was a sort of pit that was full of excavated shale from the Jurassic era, which is about 180 million years old.  For a small fee, we paid our entrance and rented hammers and chisels. 

It was blazing hot the day we went to do this, and standing in a pit of black rock made it feel like we were looking for fossils on the sun! 

Ryan wants to be a Paleontologist when he grows up, and I think he would have gladly stayed out in the heat all day chipping away at the rocks.  Meredith also had a great time, but she was traumatized when she developed, then popped a blister from hammering so much.

 

We mostly found lots of small ammonite fossils, but apparently some people have found some pretty impressive fossils in the area.  We ended up bringing home a box full of our findings, and Ryan was so excited to bring some in to show his class.

 

Ryan has asked when we can go back, and I think that this is definitely something we will do again.  I am so glad our friends invited us, because I probably never would have found this on my own. Next time I will make sure we go on a cooler day!

Picking Flowers

Yesterday was a warm, sunny day with a high in the mid-80's.  We probably should have gone to the lake for the afternoon, but we went to the grocery store instead.  On our way home we stopped at one of the many roadside spots where you can cut flowers for a modest price.

Most of the lots I have seen around my house only have gladiolas and sunflowers.  I am a sunflower fanatic (I even have a sunflower tattoo), and am happy as can be that I can keep my vases stocked with blooms for the rest of the summer. 

 

 We ended up bringing home 5 stems of gladiolas, and 3 sunflowers.  The kids loved this, and would gladly have picked every flower in the field. 

On the board behind Ryan in the picture below lists the prices and has a can where you deposit the money.  Gladiolas were 0.60/stem and the sunflowers were 0.50/stem.

I love when I drive/bike/run past these fields of flowers, and they always make me smile.  I am sure that there are similar places in the US, but I don't recall ever seeing one anywhere I have lived (and I have lived in quite a few places).  This week we are also hoping to go pick raspberries at a field by our house.  I have picked blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, but never in my life have I been raspberry picking, so I am looking forward to it, and hoping that pick-your-own will also mean that they are very cheap!

Photos from Berlin

 

Back in May, we went to Berlin for a long weekend.  Berlin is about a six hour drive to the North.  Dan had travelled there for a meeting a couple years ago, and I had been really looking forward to seeing another area of Germany.

Ryan in front of the Ampelmann store.

We stayed at a Novotel, which is a chain hotel that we have found to be family friendly.  The hotel was located in the eastern side of Berlin, and had easy access to the subway, which made getting around pretty easy.

Reichstag- a German government building

The kids thought this sculpture was hysterical!

Naturally we did a lot of walking around to the various sights and monuments.  We did our best to talk to the kids about the history of Berlin, in regards to Nazi history, then the division of Berlin among the Allied Forces, and reunification. 

Part of where the Berlin Wall stood from 1961-1989

Berlin Wall Memorial

It was nice to see that Berlin has not glossed over it's history, and there is a monument to recognize just about every atrocity that has occurred in Germany in the last hundred years.  However, visiting these monuments is heart-wrenching and no monument or plaque can ever help the people who suffered from those evils that were committed here. 

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

Brandenburg Gate

Hooray for Starbucks with a great view!

Berlin is a city with a lot of 'character'.  It is not 'charming' like Munich or Salzburg.  What I found surprising was the amount of graffiti and garbage that was sprawled everywhere.  When we first moved to Germany, I was taken aback by the amount of graffiti in Ulm, but it is nothing compared to Berlin.  Most of Germany is extremely clean and people take great pride in maintaining their homes, cars, and cities. 

This wasn't my bottle of Jager, but rather some garbage left on the railing to the river

I think that every time we got on the U-bahn there were young people drinking beer, even at ten in the morning!  I feel like an old fart to be griping about the youngsters (I am only in my 30's!) but there was definitely a large part of the population in Berlin that was heavily pierced and tattooed, and in combination with the sprawling garbage and graffiti, it did not leave me with a great impression of the city.  In the photo below you can see a man with a beer behind Ryan.  What you can't see in the photo are the obvious signs posted on the trains that say 'No Alcohol'.
 



 

 

Let me also say that my husband loved Berlin, and so do other people I have talked to.  There is so much the see there, and so much history that we probably missed, and I really wish that we had signed up for a tour.  I hate to be negative about our trip to Berlin, but to be honest I wouldn't want to go back again.