Week 4

August 7
Tonight I said "Sleep gut" to my daughter when she came to say good night. Heh.

ME has started to say "Was?" instead of "What?" when I call her.

We picked up GE's new Laufrad (balance bike) yesterday afternoon. I give it about a week before she's going faster than I can keep up with at a fast walk! Today she had already improved significantly over yesterday.She still topples over sometimes but has figured out how to catch herself so she doesn't go down with the bike. She'll pipe up "I'm fine!" and haul herself up and start again. Love that little go-getter spirit.

Took HR to the Gesundheitsamt for her school physical. One of the examiners took her to another room and although I told her that HR doesn't speak German yet, she must not have heard me clearly or misunderstood because she proceeded to do the evaluation all in German and poor HR got so flustered and worried that she started to cry. I finally had to go in and make it clear to the woman that HR wasn't being dumb (she was supposed to be telling the woman whether there were more blue balls than yellow or something) but that she couldn't understand what was being asked of her. When I explained to HR what the woman wanted her to do, then she had no trouble. Otherwise the meeting went fine.  Of course, I also found out that because we are foreigners, the schools will require a similar examination for MK and ME, so I have to go back with them on Thursday a.m....

Stopped at the Hauptbahnhof (main train station) on the way back from the school physical appointment and bought a "Schönes Wochenende Ticket" for this Saturday. We'll take a train to Koblenz then to Braubach to visit one of the few nearly intact medieval castles still remaining in the Rhine valley, Die Marksburg. We visited it once before 3 years ago on our France/Germany vacation but this time the kids will be older and, hopefully, appreciate the tour a bit more. Plus it'll be fun to the take a passenger train instead of just a subway.  L helped me navigate the train system website so I could figure out what trains we will take and what times they leave the stations for the whole round trip. It's about an hour long train ride (only a little longer than a car ride would be). The "Wochenende Ticket" is good for any train ride from 12 a.m. Saturday through 3 a.m. Sunday and covers the whole family (GE is still free) for only 40E! Maybe we'll have time to go into Koblenz a bit too on the way back (we switch trains at the Koblenz Hauptbahnhof). Makes it hard to justify getting a car...

August 8
Today was pretty normal: breakfast, make some soup for lunch, head to the store for a few things leaving kids to play on the playground nearby, then home again, lunch around noon, naps, L arrives 3-ish to take the older girls out for some German conversation, then the kids played for a while inside while I made dinner, after dinner walk with GE on her Laufrad (I had to run some tonight to keep up and she only fell over once!) to play at the park again, then home for bed. Tomorrow we have to get up early to back to the Gesundheitsamt for MK and ME's school physicals. Hopefully they'll go quickly and we won't be there long. We have plans for the afternoon that I'm looking forward to. :)

A peak at GE this evening: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvCU3f4OL-0&feature=player_detailpage

August 9
Great day! Took MK and ME to their school physicals. Alles in Ordnung (everything's in order). Ran up the hill into the woods after lunch for my 40 min run--set a timer on my smartphone for 20 mins and then just ran until it went off (all up hill!) then turned around and went back downhill plus a little bit around the neighborhood for another 20 mins. Gorgeous weather. Then my old friend V and her husband C came to our place, got a little tour of the apartment, and Skyped a little with my sister L (also a friend of V's). Then we headed to the Friesdorferplatz for some Eis and Kaffee. Spent a good couple of hours speaking German (yeah, it's getting so much easier!) and bought a few items for our Abendbrot before heading back to the apartment. GE is getting quicker and quicker on her little Laufrad. If you watch the video, you might notice that she already wiggles the steering around to help keep her balance. It's been pretty cool to see her very intuitively learn how to "ride bike". I think the shift to a pedal bike when we get back to the US will be very seamless. Next lesson: how to use her handbrake!!

August 10
HB has begun to have her figurines talk to each other in German. Quite often there are actual words such as "Ich" "Ah, nein!" "Komm mit!" and so on. Love it!!

We went to Bonn Zentrum this morning to do some school shopping. Bought some things for HR's "Schultute", a large cone-shaped gift bag that each first grader gets from their parents on the first day of school. The first day for First-graders is a BIG deal here. She picked out a Schultute that she can decorate herself. The Schulranzen (special backpacks for the grade school kids; older kids get a Rucksack like our backpacks in the US) were too expensive at the downtown shops so I checked Amazon.de when we got home and found some nice ones for 1/3 of the store prices. How do they get away with that?! She'll be all decked out for the first day of school (August 22). :) The big girls each got a Federmäpchen (pen/pencil case for fountain pens and small supplies). We finally found an inexpensive purse for MK to keep her wallet (which will have her bus pass in it) and her phone in.

Tonight GE asked to go outside on her bike after supper. It's another beautiful day, so I said, "Sure!" While we were at the playground, she wanted to ride around on her bike in the parking area. Another 3 year old boy was riding his Laufrad around as well. Suddenly as she came down a small incline, she hollered "Look Mom! I'm balancing!" I turn to see that she has both feet spread eagle and is gliding along! From that point on she would push with her feet, then put them up on the rest pad and glide until she got too slow, then pushed off again and glided. Woohoo!

August 12
Lots of good stuff this weekend. We got up early Saturday morning, took a bus to the Bad Godesberg train station (actually the bus only got us to downtown Bad Godesberg, then we had to walk to the station and I wasn't exactly sure where it was so some back-tracking was involved), then caught a train to Koblenz.  The train followed the Rhein river for a good part. Gorgeous sunny weather. Lots of folks getting on and off the train wearing hiking gear or carrying walking sticks. At Koblenz we switched trains. Our final destination: Braubach to visit "Die Marksburg". http://www.marksburg.de/default.htm

We were first introduced to this castle 3 years ago when we visited France and Germany for a summer vacation. Our family friends suggested it as a place to visit as we traveled from their house to Marburg where I lived as a child. It was stunning then and we decided to take the girls again now that they're older and could appreciate it more. We weren't disappointed!

 Can you see the castle peaking out at the top of the hill?

 The wall was built first in early 1230's, the first building structures in 1239!

The cannons were the real deal!

 

 

 (The Knight's Stairway)

We ate a lovely little lunch at the castle's cafe, then hiked back down the hill to the train station and went back to Koblenz. The walk to and from the castle, by the way, was quite a hike. Pretty much cut up the side of the steep hill! The little town of Braubach was picturesque and the signs to the trail leading to the castle took us through some pretty little alleys.

Back in Koblenz there was a party gearing up along the Rhein, the annual "Rhine in Flames",(http://www.koblenz.de/stadtleben_kultur/rhein_in_flammen.html). Koblenz is known for being at the "Ecke" (corner) of where the Mosel river meets the Rhein river. There is a large Schloss in town as well as a fortress, Festung Ehrenbreitstein (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ehrenbreitstein_Fortress) on the opposite bank of the Rhein with a gondola line going over the river.  We walked through the Aldstadt to the Rhein and took the Sielbahn across the river to the Festung, explored the fortress (which housed parts of the German army during WWI and was used as a prison at other times), then went back to Koblenz for some street vendor food for supper before catching the train back to Bad Godesberg.

 (A tradition when we go into a Katolische Kirche:  the girls light a candle for Grandma!)

 When I took this picture GE had been walking *all* day. This was taken at her usual nap time--no nap today! I'm still amazed by how much walking the kids tolerate and how the littlest one keeps going and going. She was zoning out a bit listening to the street musicians.

Sunday we returned to the Pauluskirche for morning Gottesdienst, had a quiet lunch at home, naps, then took a walk up in the woods with some sandwiches for a picnic. All in all a great weekend. One more weekend left before school starts on the 22nd. This week I have to get the kids registered at their schools. We have an invitation to go to a family's home to play on Weds. morning and I have a long list of school supplies to get.