Our good family friend, MSD took us to Bonn Zentrum by car through falling snow. The weather was 85% chance of snow all day long (turned out to be basically 100% since it was snowing when I got up at 6, still coming down when we came home from dinner at 9 p.m. and never quit in between!) and below freezing temps! What kind of March is this?! Quite unusual for this part of Germany... Nevertheless we enjoyed ourselves. Breakfast at a cafe, shoe shopping, window shopping, toy store...
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| Breakfast with MSD |
After feeding the kids supper, L and I tried to catch a bus to a restaurant along the Rhein, but waited and waited and no bus! After our reservation time came and went, I called a taxi to come get us. The snow was still coming down! Taxi got stuck in traffic too but eventually found an alternate route and we got to the restaurant, Schaumburger Hof just 15 minutes late.
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| The options were not meat-free and dairy-free friendly! All the fish dishes had cream sauces and so I ended up patching together potatoes from one entree with a Schnitzel from another (one of the only things that didn't have butter or milk in the breading). Delicious, but a little too heavy! LY had a roast with a "sour" sauce (vinegar), potato dumplings, and a side of baked apples. |
Wednesday March 13
The morning dawned bright and sunny, but still cold. The world is white again! We took the bus to drop off GE at Kindergarten then I took L and E up to the old Muffendorf mainstreet which is full of wonderful old Fachwerk buildings. I knew of a little cafe there that purportedly has wonderful croissants, but unfortunately it's closed except 2 or 3 days of the week and of course, this was one of the "closed" days!
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| Explaining the method for filling the gaps between the timbers. |
After lunch L stayed at the apartment with the girls while I went to the Kindergarten for a "Spielnachmittag" for the parents and Kindergarteners. The teachers wanted us to get a taste of what each day is like for our children, so the afternoon simulated the morning routine: free choice play (GE and I did some pattern puzzles), then circle time (games and songs), followed by a snack, and then play in the Turnhalle (parachute games in the gym). It was great fun and I had a chance to talk lots of German with GE--immensely entertaining! She sang while she was putting her puzzle together and her teacher approached me to ask if she did that at home too. I told her "yes!" and that she often annoys her older siblings with it. To this, her teacher replied that the teachers or other students sometimes have to ask her to sing a little softer in school too!! GE looked a little sheepish but then her teacher hugged her and GE hugged back.
No Laufengruppe tonight. :( HW canceled for some reason.
Thursday March 14
Today I took Laura along for some grocery shopping at Der Leyenhof. I kept GE at home since we had plans for right after lunch and I didn't want to have to wait until after Kindergarten to leave. She tagged along to see the bunnies, chickens, and the Bio Hof shop. She'd never been there since I always do my shopping while the kids are at school!
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| Checking out the huge bunnies at the Leyenhof. |
After lunch we hopped on the U-bahn to Piratenland. We'd been there over the Karneval holiday and HR wanted to take cousin E there to play. It was basically empty when we got there with a just a few others trailing in for someone's birthday party a little while later, so the girls had their pick of giant tricycles, bikes, go-carts and the trampolines. LY and I sat at the tables on the side and talked while the kids played. Before we left, I reserved a birthday table for a party for HR's 7th birthday. She can hardly wait! We headed home in time for a light supper and then tucked some tired girls into bed! (The following pics are all from ME's camera--she asked me to take the one of her!)
Then LY and I headed over to Club Galacia for paella and tapas! It was packed, as usual! I'd made our reservations on Sunday for Thursday since one has to order the paella ahead of time to make sure they have enough stove-top space. It was delicious! And we had a wonderful time visiting, of course.
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| Paella (a Spanish specialty) with "Meeresfruchte" (Seafood) |
Friday March 15
LY wanted to spend the day in Köln with her daughter E, so I took them to the Bonn Hauptbahnhof and helped them get tickets for the regional train to Köln. They climbed the Dom spire, took the Bimmelbahn through the Aldstadt, shopped, went to Cafe Reichard, and went to the Schokolade Museum. In the afternoon I took HR and GE on the train to Köln and met them near the Dom. From there we took the U-bahn to see our friend, VM and her husband, CN. We ordered some pizza for the kids and some Thai food for ourselves (plus a very yummy arugula salad that VM made) and sat around catching up on all the years since my sister, LY, had spent a summer with VM and her family! So many memories...
We finally packed the little girls up and headed to the train station. Poor GE was sooo tired that she fell asleep lying on the pavement next to the ticket machine while we tried to get the machine to print multiple tickets for the ride home! She slept through me picking her up, carrying her to the train, laying her down on two seats, picking her up again in Bonn, and loading into a taxi for the ride home (there was no way I was going to carry her all the way from the U-bahn station to our apartment plus the little "big" girls were not going to make it either!). The regional train became pretty full (we were some of the first to get on) and folks kept coming up to where GE was sleeping thinking they'd found some free seats, only to stop and see the little sleeping form (sucking her thumb), responding with "Awwww!" and then moving on without any ire at us for hogging the seats!
Saturday March 16
Another full day planned: the weather was sunny and mostly clear but still quite cool. We bundled everyone up and took a regional train from Bad Godesberg to Koblenz, then a bus to the Stolzenfels Schloss. It was so quiet, we were worried that the castle wasn't open (it also had parts shrouded in scaffolding and lots of construction riff-raff about), but when we got to the gate, it was open. We had to wait 40 minutes in the cold for the tour to start, but it was worth it! A beautiful castle with the original walls and floors (we had to wear big felt slippers over our shoes). Unfortunately, no photography was allowed inside, but we made up for it outside with the sun shining and the view south to the Marksburg and across the Rhein to the Lahneck Schloss were clear. ME went a little camera happy, so some of the photos below are hers (I've given her credit.)
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| The bus let us out right at the entrance to the Schlossweg. Quite the dramatic picture despite all the construction shrouding the tower! |
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| Burg Lahneck on the opposite bank (where the Lahn river enters the Rhein). |
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| Cousin E at the main entrance. |
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| Waiting for the tour to start. It was cold but at least it was sunny and the benches were warm when we sat on them! |
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| Bundled up and waiting! |
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| After the tour inside we were allowed to explore the gardens and walk ways. Here are MK (left), HR and cousin E. |
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| A fresco on the wall above the main entry to the inner courtyard. |
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| GE in the purple, HR on the stairs. |
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| The Rhein river looking north towards Koblenz. Cousin E in the foreground. |
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| Another shot of the Lahneck castle. Would like to visit it, but it's a little more complicated to get to the other side of the river! |
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| The Marksburg castle further up the Rhein river. We remembered being able to see Stolzenfels from the outer walls |
Maggie's Pictures:
We took the bus back to the train station, got a little lunch in the station and got the first available train back to Bad Godesberg. The hurry? Our friends RW and GW were coming for Kaffee und Kuchen at 4:30 and we had reservations for supper at La Vita at 6:30. We got home about 3:30 and everyone pitched in to straighten up the living and dining rooms while I got the coffee and cakes ready (some from a quick run to the Merzenich bakery near the train station and one I had baked on Friday while LY was in Köln). It was great fun seeing them again and visiting with them. Only sorry we didn't have time for more!
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| from left to right: GW, RW, my sister LY and daughter E at La Vita. |
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