Wayne and Rebecca Madsen

Who knows where to even start with such a full trip? We raced here and there and everywhere, all over Germany for an eventful 10 day trip with Karl and Angela and Thomas. Wayne drove the whole time (manual van was fun; lots of snow, not so much; babies loudly protested being buckled into car seats by the end -- or even by the middle).

And we saw highlights the whole country over. I've wanted to go to Germany since I was a teenager, and now I've been. Already I want to visit again some day. I don't think Wayne shares the sentiment, but maybe he just needs time to forget how long it takes to fly so far [and drive so much].

We lucked out on the flight out there; the United guy seemed to be taking a significantly longer time getting us checked in, and then mumbled something about switching us to a direct flight. Hey, excellent! If not for the teenagers keeping their overhead lights on the whole flight and switching seats with one another (yes, I know it's "only" 6pm at home, but where we are going it's much much later). They switched us halfway to Germany when the flight attendants suddenly realized you can't have two babies in the same row with only five airmasks and six of us. Karl and Angela were much better shipmates than the teenagers they moved us to. At least Peala and Thomas got some sleep.

And so we arrived in Germany with very little sleep under our belts. Not to jump into a long drive immediately, we explored Frankfurt. We saw the cathedral Marc Chagall worked on. Being Easter Sunday, we couldn't get too far into the church [it was packed], but we did see impressive art on the outside of the building. Driving a little further we tried to find a castle on our way to the Black Forest. We found it, but couldn't find parking. By the time we found ourselves on a one way street with literally inches of wiggle room (everyone was glad Wayne was driving), we made the narrowest escape ever [with barely a hair's width to clear it. I swear I didn't flinch!] and continued our trip to the Black Forest.

The first place we stayed was our favorite as far as accommodations go. A fun little bed and breakfast that a couple from England is running. If anyone wants to visit the Black Forest, we can definitely recommend a place to you. It's got character and wonderful, friendly service, not to mention a tiny village. They had advice for us, and even were willing to make us an Easter dinner when we arrived. Plus they took Karl and Angela to the local doctor when Thomas came down with a fever. Getting sick is never fun, but I didn't envy Thomas getting sick in a foreign country on top of it all. On the positive side, he did get better pretty quick, Paela didn't catch it, and none of us really had bad jet lag other than the first day [I have to interject a little story here. At four in the morning, we decide to take the van and find the local hospital or doctor's office. Either one would have worked for Thomas. So we hop into the van in the middle of a snowstorm and while driving on the main road in a 300+ person village, we stop to ask directions from a 3 person troupe (2 men and a woman) dressed in traditional clothing. Stone drunk. Wearing no coats. Funny? Maybe it was funny when the guy tried to climb in our window. That was funny now. Or maybe it was funnier when we got back and he was still wandering the streets drunk and sans coat.].

We learned about cuckoo clocks in Triberg, and found quite a beautiful one with a fairy tale theme, shaped like a mushroom instead of a house. We drooled over it quite a bit and wished the exchange rate isn't so horrible [or that the price wasn't 600€]. Snow prevented us from seeing one of the world's largest cuckoo clocks, but we made it back to our lodging without slipping and sliding on the backroads (at least, not too much...Karl and I only had to push the van a little bit!).

Near Munich, we saw the Sleeping Beauty castle (Neuschwanstein Castle) which was very impressive even if "newer" and unfinished and they rushed us through. Then we headed north, north, north.

On the way to Berlin, being such a long drive, we stopped to stretch our legs in a walled city: Rothenburg ob der Tauber. We all wished we could spend more than an hour here. The schneeball desserts were delicious, construction of the town was interesting, one of the cathedrals we could have spent hours in, and the shops were all cute (even if touristy). Alas, we had to make it to Berlin still, so we plugged babies back in the car and continued on.

One more stop to break up the drive, and for Wayne to check out an artist residency program in Weimar. We wished we had done a bit more research (aka printed off directions and knew what questions to ask), but it was nice to be able to meet and chat with people there for a little bit. Weimar is a very artsy town that would have been fun to explore more too.

We finally made it to Berlin past Paela's bedtime, so I had to sing to her in the car for half an hour to keep her calm. She didn't enjoy car sleep as much as she enjoys sleeping somewhere flat, or even moby sleep. I think the car makes her drowsier than she really is, as she would fall asleep sooner than usual, but also not sleep as soundly and wake up sooner than normal too. She was always glad to sleep when we arrived at lodging places.

We spent one full day in Berlin wandering around the town and through cool art museums. We saw the contemporary museum and the old masters museum; two good choices. The old masters museum was less busy and much quieter. I think the Richard Long piece was my favorite. There were also photographs of Detroit in one exhibit; we went to Germany to see Detroit. We decided after paying for underground passes that we could have just walked everywhere. Now we know. And people (particularly Japanese people) would take pictures of Paela. Should we charge for this?

The next day we went to Karl's and my relative's house in north Germany (Suderwalsede). It was fun trying to speak German extensively for the first time. The rest of the trip we mostly just interacted to pay for things or order things and had decided we must all have really horrible accents. Or maybe we look like Americans. Whatever the case, multiple times we would try and order a meal or pay for something in German, only to have the person respond by speaking English to us. Oh well. At least we were able to communicate a little with the relatives we stayed with. It helped that at the beginning a cousin once-removed who spoke English (Kai) came over, but then he "abandoned" us to our own devices. I was glad Karl was there to talk and I mostly just struggled to recall all the vocabulary and let him string it into sentences. During dinner, Wayne managed to ask for "Brot, bitte" and Kai passed it to him without a second glance. Then Wayne very excitedly said "YES!" and all the relatives laughed and smiled at his delight to communicate.

We also enjoyed the chance to explore a little bit in a non-tourist town; Wayne said "so this is Germany!" Most importantly, this is where Paela first scooted along the floor to her toy. Not far, but she's building off this skill, for sure. I guess this was payback for finally letting her play on the floor instead of being strapped to a car seat or stroller or moby.

One of my favorite days was Saturday when we drove to Koeln to see the Koelner Dom (the cathedral). It was huge. It was impressive. It was breathtaking. You would look up and up and up to see the ceiling and the top of the huge stained glass windows and just marvel and think of our Creator [seriously, the people who said "let's take roman architecture and put it up in the sky" were frickin' brilliant]. And then, after help from an internet cafe, we found the Lindt chocolate museum in Koeln and had delicious truffles (passionfruit and mango! mmm!). They even had a mini rain forest we walked through to see what it's like where they grow cocoa.

We had our fill of good German food in Germany. Most restaurants had someone who spoke passable English, though communicating something "complicated" like "to go" was a feat for us at one place where the servers didn't speak English at all (entpacken is the word we wanted, as it turns out, and they only had one plastic container to send with us; we had to return a glass bowl to the restaurant the next morning). We tasted delicious cakes that Tante Frieda made for us. Deer, wursts, wienerschnitzel, sauerbraten, sauerkraut, delicious breads and cheese, and I learned to love Kasespaetzle. By the end of the trip, we tired a bit of the traditional bread and sandwich meat and cheese for breakfast, but Karl still wanted "one more wurst."

One thing we learned is that German people must not drink as much water as I do. At restaurants, it was hit and miss whether we could get/communicate a desire for tap water. Sometimes they brought sparkling water. Sometimes we had to choose a soda or juice. And I saw only one water fountain the whole trip -- at the Munich airport. It was quite the trip, and next time I will take more water bottles.