Buses, Trains, Aeroplanes and a CAMPERVAN!

In the last couple of weeks of the Germany summer holidays when the weather was really lovely, we, yet again, packed up the kids and headed off on a 9 day 'holiday'. I say holiday in inverted commas as our 'holidays' always seem to involve a lot of schlepping, walking and waiting. All, of course for an amazing adventure but never to just lay in the sun and read a book. So all packed and ready, up at 5:30am off we go  for one of the sunniest countries in the world... Ireland.

Bus, train then plane and finally we land in Ireland. The poor Mouse didn't understand the Leprechaun joke the passport control chap made and really thought she might not be allowed into Ireland. It didn't help that I had dressed her in green.With many reassurance that she was allowed to continue with us we headed out wondering if the cousins would recognise us and us them as it had been nearly 7 years since we last saw each other. Turns out they were thinking the same thing and that we had nothing to worry about as the family resemblance is strong. We were pretty confused as we were lead by the Irish part of the family past the airport car park and through the industrial area. So being a good mother I asked what the deal was. As it turned out the surprise was we got picked up in their mobile home. So we all piled in and took the long way back to their house. 

The long way was brilliant, (thank you hatted driver) and it really was a long way to Tipperary. We saw little towns, even smaller laneways where we all breathed in, and a playground for the kids as we stopped for lunch. We won't mention the dinner stop, suffice to say it did have a lovely pond in the drive and as we watched the trucks filled with cattle pull in we didn't tell the kids it wasn't a farm. I can't complain as 

all my children tried out the 'facilities' in the campervan and I sent a couple of the last hours of the drive with my head on the most amazing pillow in the world warding off a headache.

 The highlight of the day apart from finding a service station when we had been driving on E for half an hour, and the point of the long drive home was Jerpoint Abbey. The family has an ancestral link to this area and the Abbey ruin is the focal point. The weather was amazing, the treasure hunt for the kids really got us looking around and the tour by an amazing guide filled in all the details. Basically we all made ourselves really at home in the couple of hours we were they and explored every nook and cranny.

  By the end of the day kids who were too shy to talk to each other at the beginning were planning who would sleep where and what games could be played and what the dog was called...Jack of course.

 In the next week, castles and 1000 AD villages galore were visited,

Lakes were explored and attempts at skimming stones were made, 

Storybook images came to life...Enid Blyton's "Caravan Family" of course.

The Shannon was sailed upon,

and many a fantastic meal was prepared and share. Millions of thanks to the Irish crew.

With bags and sunny weather all packed and ready, tearful goodbyes were said (I can always get others to cry along with me) we boarded the bus to Dublin and took the quick flight to London.  

Luckily for the kids it is really difficult to find a family hostel in the high season in London so we actually forked out decent money and managed to get a really lovely apartment near Kings Cross. Energy levels restored by a short nights' rest the walking got shifted into high gear. The waiting got left out as we decided that a good overview of the city by foot and Tube was preferable to waiting in line to go in.   

Luckily we managed to visit London on the weekend they shut down the major roads for a cycle race so we got to explore Big Ben, Westminister Abbey and Buckingham Palace without traffic buzzing by (yet another reason to praise the humble bicycle)

Trying to pass on my fascination with the Tube onto the kids. Mostly it worked, except when they had to stand up.

As per request from the Bear we visited the Olympic Stadium. Herr F and I were skeptical but it was a worthwhile trip to see a really wonderful public space...until the Monkey fell over and took a sizable amount of skin off her hand, knee and hip so with clouds gathering and many more things to see we headed back to central London.

I love the juxtaposition of the old Helter Skelter slide with the new Orbital viewing tower. 

London isn't London without a lion photo!

A fantastic installation artwork at the Tower of London. Ceramic poppies are being installed and it will be finished for Remembrance Day in November.

Sometimes you just have to say yes. They all wanted to go to Legoland so much and after much deliberating we decided on the one in Windsor whilst we were there. To give up one of our 4 days in London to go to a theme park was a parental stretch but as the kids repeated over and over again "Everything was AWESOME" at least if you were under 10 so it was really worth the day.

I suppose we owed them some real kid activity after they came with us to our highlight the "British Museum". It was the one thing we were willing to line up for but some how, probably due to pouring rain and possibly using the exit not the entrance gate (by accident) we walked straight in. I have never been there in high summer period before so was a bit shocked at the amount of people but we had our list of things to see and our very own historian to give the tour.

Two out of three really interested isn't bad. Or maybe she is really, really interested, can't quite tell.

We have just finished reading the first two Harry Potter books with the Bear and the Monkey so a final stop at Platform 9 3/4 was essential. The fact we had walked past it everyday and said the line was too long meant it was make or break on the last morning so an early morning walk to the station just for the photo was in order and surprise, surprise there was no line. Just the way we like it.

Notice the Mouse was the only one to pose with Voldemort's wand.

Just enough  time left to grab lunch...

and make that much needed phone call to the Mouse's best friends...

  

before we caught the train all the way from London back to Germany to rest our feet and switch our brains back into German before school starts.

So ist das Leben...

 Life is sure tough when you get dragged across the world by your parents.

Are you sure the library is open mum?

 First there is all the science stuff they make you learn in really boring ways. 

Team work is required but not always done willingly.

They made us build our own house. There are no photos of the plumbing section it was just too tricky.

Actually you can see the toilet in the background.

 Ok, bubbles are just fun but they take lots of concentration when they are huge.

 Not to mention all the obstacles of living in another country.

Then they make you pose for this photo for nearly 3 minutes. 

Of course they let us have fun sometimes...

Though it did rain for the first hour of this frizzbee training session. 

 We get to participate in the black dog exchange programme. We swapped our black dog Kaiser who stayed in Australia for the black dog next door called Lola for 2 weeks.

And there is a really steady supply of Nutella. This time on crepes in a friend's garden.

Then back to the hard work of board game playing. Here we must thank all the friends who have lent us games when our horrible parents made us leave all our toys behind.

But they did take us to a fair and actually let us go on a couple of rides.

"Dad, I don't really see how this is teaching me about ancient history AHrrrrrrr!" said the Bear

 Parent note: How could we not get her a duck picture as she has seen the picture of the other kids doing this last time. 2014 above and 2010 below

Then there is the endless live theatre. Every Sunday for the last 3 weeks. Poor, poor us. They say it is good for us and even better as it is free!

Us reinventing "Wo die wilden Kerlen wohnen" ("Where the Wild Things Are") in the old zoo gate.

And they ship us off to swimming lessons!!!!!

Including our adventure to the salt water pool by our fantastic neighbours in their wohnwagen.

We don't know why Mum freaks out that the coast is so far away,

 there seems to be plenty of water around here.

Ok we give in we can't complain, if only we didn't have to ride our bikes everywhere. Oh, hang on a minute that is the part we love the best. "Mum, don't forget that our street is a one way street. We know what the police told you the other day as we rode up it the wrong way, even though you translated it a bit differently to us we know that if you get caught again it will cost you 20 euros. Remember we can speak german too."

Photo credit to the Mouse.

To the doctors with a little Tour de France thrown in.

The Mouse has had a cold for the last three weeks and decided yesterday to get really sick, complain about her ear and spike a fairly high temperature. So I decided to take her seriously and rang up the doctor to see if we could get an appointment in the afternoon or the next day. This is how it went:

12 30pm ring up doctor's office and babble my way through what was wrong and the possibility of an appointment.

12 31pm Receptionists listens thoughtfully, repeats questions when I obviously give the wrong answers. Asks where we live and then says they are open till 1pm so come now.

12 33  I helpfully try to explain that we are coming by bike and may not make it by 1pm

12 34 Blind optimism on the part of the receptionist and I am corralling kids into a code red situation. Grab your helmets and shoes, luckily part of psyching myself up to call the doctor consisted of finding all the health insurance paperwork and we are off.

The next 16 minutes are a blur of unlocking bikes, remembering not to ride too fast for the kids, admiring the power of nature whilst avoiding the fallen down trees from the crazy storm on Monday, pausing briefly to pick up the Monkey and dust her off as she only learnt yesterday that you can't ride through thick gravel while looking at the flooded creek, applying no first aid except for the sentence "I will buy you an appleschorle drink if you get back on your bike champ", answering the follow up question of; "A bottle of my very own or do I have to share?", and realising that my bike seat still hadn't dried properly from that storm on Monday.

12 50pm Having left the peloton far behind we pull into the driveway, all wipe sweat off their brows, race through the door of the doctor's office to be met by the receptionist clapping, the doctor grinning and the other receptionist saying "sie haben es geschaft". The winners wreath was presented to us, we popped fake champagne bottles open and went straight in for our appointment.

13 02 Ear infection confirmed and we were on our to the shop for the promised drink as the doctor's shut up shop for lunch break.

13 15 We began the much slower ride back home taking the time to look at the destruction caused by the storm.

PS schorle is the german word for 'Shandy' or more universally 'spritzer'. Appleschorle is the kids' favourite and, I am pretty sure the only reason they joined us on our trip here. At 25 Euro cents a bottle how could I say no. Also no photos as in my hurry I forgot my phone.

Rules to Bike Riding

Normally, there are a few generally accepted social conventions that I do like to uphold but I find, when I am solely relying on my bicycle as my form of transport I throw a few of these out the window. Ok, so not really caring how your hair looks as it will look windblown or rain effected is ok. Arriving a bit sweaty and forgetting to take a moment to regain composure before entering a government or medical building, not too bad. Forgetting to ride on the right hand side of the road, not so easy to gloss over with 2 smaller riders following your lead; not life threatening and it has only happened twice so far so I can live with that. The most alarming thing by far is arriving somewhere with a wet bottom. It rained (let's not mention how many times I have done this), I have no bike seat cover and my bike seat plastic cover is broken. Ergo it looks dry but after 5 minutes riding you realise that water is being absorbed and you have no other option but to carry on and hope the rest of the cycling city realises that you are a newbie to the biking cause and not incontinent. If you add walking into these said offices babbling as you would in Australia and giving way too much irrelevant information then that is the daily double.

There is always room for one more bike, especially when it is mine and bright yellow.

Gruen, gruen, gruen sind alle...

It is so green! Actually it is so green it makes my eyes hurt and my heart sing with joy as it is quite overwhelming to eyes so used to the Australian landscape.

 

Things just grow in peoples back yards and the grass is soft to sit on and did I mention it is all so green? And you can eat the berries. I am still afraid everything that grows is poisonous but I am working through it. It is a difficult mind shift to make that not all berries are poisonous. Actually most are delicious, though it did take me quite a few attempts to be in agreement that Johannisbeeren are tasty.

An attempt to get a family photo in all the green for the Mouse's kindergarten hook. She is taking the idea of a "school" photo very seriously. I unfortunately didn't make it in the allotted 10 seconds and I think I may have bumped the camera in my hurry.

 Of course for it to be so green a fair amount of rain is necessary. I can't complain as we have had some lovely European (code for lovely but not super hot) summer days but we have also had a lot of rainy days. Actually every day we have gone to a certain friend's house it has rained. Maybe they could be used as drought breakers if they moved to Australia. This is the view from our window at about 9am.

 Nothing, but nothing will make rain gear look attractive, unless you are under the age of 10 then everything looks adorable. It is especially difficult when one has left one's raincoat at a friend's house and is forced to wear 9 year old son's rain jacket.

Then right next to all that green is the city centre with it's own fair share of green to compliment the beautiful architecture. Even though this is my fifth time in Germany, everyday still feels like living in the pages of a story book. Even if I am having a day where everything is difficult because it is difficult for the whole family to get into a routine and get into the swing of life in a different place, as soon as I look out the window or ride my bike up the street I am transported into another world and my imagination is full of fairy tale stories and I reset and start all over again.

Sometimes adding some deep fried potato really helps reset everyone's mood. And of course the threat that the next to whinge will end up in one of those cages on the church always comes in handy. Add apple sauce on the side, and the fact that drinks were forgotten and a massive detour to the supermarket was required, all was forgotten and a lovely stroll was had around the city. It is funny the kids don't remember much of this from last time so it is like starting all over again

Let's hope Germany win the world cup tonight. Luckily the German flag is easy to face paint as it is all the rage at Kindergarten.

Next chapter 2014

Although adventures have been happening to BearMonkeyMouse between then and now for some reason blogging about life in Australia isn't what this blog is about. Of course we could talk about all the amazing things we have done in the last few years like firming up fantastic friendships in our most amazing hillside community, the kids at school, trips to the beach, exchange student adventures, numerous trips across a large chunk of Australia to visit our much loved family and becoming pet owners to the best dog and the most productive and crazy chickens in the world. This blog, or our very own chapter book is all about our adventures in Germany. Now, as we are back in Germany again after being away for 3 years a new chapter begins. I am calling it a new chapter because as we all know sequels, as the Muppets recently said are never as good as the first movie but let's hope this adventure is just a continuation of the last.

At airport with what seems like a lot of luggage but as we have had to buy shoes and underpants for certain family members I think we may have packed a bit to lightly.

 Nearly, Nearly there, no more aeroplanes, just one final train leg.

And we made it. Picked up from the train station by parts of our wonderful German family and brought to our new house.