Germany

The week begins and we are back to daily life, Brett heads to work for his first day in the Munich office. The commute is about 30 minutes and he says the people there are very nice and friendly, also said the cafeteria has great cheap food. The kids and I went out exploring and found two playgrounds near our house. Our apartment is right by a very old cemetery dating back to the 1600’s. We walked through it on the way to the playground and Alana starts asking questions….she said “Mommy how will the people get those stones off when they get resurrected?” She asks at least a hundred questions a day, I try to answer them the best I can. Today she asked “Mommy when will you be a grandma?” I said hopefully not for a very long time! “Where will you live when you are a grandma?” Another day she asked “Can I marry Allden when I grow up?” She is always keeping us on our toes. In the afternoon we took a walk through down town Munich and walked around all the pedestrian shopping streets. They don’t have a mall like in the U.S. but instead have pedestrian only zones with stores along both sides. Everything here is more expensive than the U.S. but it’s still fun to window shop and people watch. There are lots of people walking around everywhere. I get comments on the kids in German and I just smile and nod. Munich is a cool city!
On Tuesdays Brett has many late-night US meetings, so he works the afternoon/evening shift and does something with us in the morning instead. This works out well because some places are only open during the day, and closed in the evening. So Tuesday morning we went to see the Residenz in downtown Munich. This was the former residence of Bavarian Kings, large sections of the Palace were destroyed in World War II and has since been rebuilt. The Palace was huge! There is also the Schatzkammer (a large treasury) that holds many priceless artifacts. My favorite were the Bavarian crown jewels.

(Allden wouldn't let go of our audio tour guide)

(Antiquarium in Munich's Residenz the ceiling had 16 pictures of famous lady's)

When we got back to our apartment there were people in there working, there was a leak in our floor or wall and they were going to have to rip the floor up to do the repair work. This apartment was built around 1850 so I guess you have to expect some major repairs at some point. So we were going to have to move out the next day.
Early Wednesday morning we moved into another apartment the guy owned. It was only about a mile away and twice as big. So everything worked out for the better. The guy that owns the apartment was very nice and apologetic and helped up move everything. It is always a lot of work to pack up and then unpack, it takes a couple hours. The new apartment was built in the early 1900’s and is actually downstairs, this apartment was converted from a bakery production shop. He showed us where they covered up the huge ovens in the wall and there is a door that goes back in to see where the ovens used to be (it’s covered in spiderwebs now and looks really old). The kids and I went out and explored our new area. Of course they found the playground (they can spot one before I do, and once they see it they must play on it). We are right by the Isar River so we took a nice stroll along the tree lined path and enjoyed the nice weather. We then walked to the nearby grocery store-Lidl it’s more of a budget grocery store and it’s good for the basics, but they don’t have everything I am used to finding in a grocery store. It’s always a challenge grocery shopping with the 3 kids and not being able to read labels or find what I am looking for, it’s also a challenge to bag my own groceries and then carry them all home.
Thursday the weather turned cold and rainy so we stayed inside most of the day and prepared for the weekend and moving to Italy. After Brett got home from work we went to the Olympic Park in Munich, it was built for the 1972 Olympic Games. We went up the Olympic Tower in a really fast elevator at 7 meters per second,and looked out at the city. It was dark so we only saw the lights but it was still cool. They had a rock n roll museum at the top that my Dad would appreciate. We also walked around and saw the huge indoor swimming pool at the Olympic Swimming Center. This is where the American swimmer Mark Spitz won his 7 gold medals.
On Friday, Brett took a vacation day off, and we took a drive to the southeastern part of Germany, right on the Austrian border. We drove through the mountains, it was cold and raining. The trip was well worth it when we arrived at the Lake Konigssee it is 8km long and 1.25 km wide. The scenery was absolutely gorgeous! The water was an emerald green and it was surrounded by huge mountains! The fall colors are beautiful! The Konigssee is the cleanest lake in Germany, the boats are powered by batteries to preserve the cleanliness and silence of the lake. We took a boat ride to St. Bartholoma, about an hour 15 min boat ride in amazing scenery. We stopped the boat at Echowand, here our boatman played a trumpet out the window and you can hear the echo play back 1 to 2 times off the mountains. We docked in St. Barholoma for a short time and took a few pictures. This place was up there on our top 10 beautiful places. On our way back to Munich it started snowing!
Saturday we took another day trip and this time went south to Garmish and drove around through the mountains. The weather was freezing and snowing all day. It was a white winter wonderland, it was pretty to see all the trees covered in white. We got out in Mittenwald and walked around the town that is famous for their painted houses. There are murals on the houses and churches everywhere. The kids had fun playing in the snow for a little while and had some hot chocolate. Snow is fun for a day but I don’t want to live in it. I think I would rather have extreme heat than extreme cold (I guess that’s easy to say when you are cold). It snowed all the way back to Munich, we are excited to be in warmer weather in Italy. Our plan was to head south for the winter.
We enjoyed Munich but the biggest problem was parking, Brett would drop me and the kids off and then sometimes circle the area for 30 minutes waiting for someone to leave before finding a parking place. In Italy our apartment has its own little garage so Brett will always have a spot for the car.
Sunday we had a long drive to Italy, it took us about 7 hours, that’s quite a long drive for the kids especially with no DVD player. (It was damaged on the flight to France) We are staying in an apartment just outside of Milan, the city is called Legnano. Our apartment has 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and a balcony. We are on the 4th floor but at least there is an elevator. There is a playground right behind the apartment and a grocery store within walking distance. Brett’s commute will be longer than desired about 45 minutes but everything in Milan was very expensive. The bathroom here has a bidet which is a new thing for the kids, Addy and Alana said look “a little sink just my size”. The apartment is nice and we will be here for about a month, this will be a good break from all of our jumping around the past month or two.