Herbstferien - Bonn and Köln

Ferien = School vacation

A little background: Every German Bundesland (state) school system has a different vacation schedule so that the roads aren't clogged with cars with everyone taking Urlaub (vacation) at the same time. Our experience is that Germans have developed a fabulous balance between work and play that is built into their culture and work lives. We wish we could emulate it in the USA! Businesses and schools are required to offer their employees and students a certain amount of vacation time each year and it's not just one or two weeks of accumulated "vacation time"! The school systems also have a much shorter summer break than the US (usually about 6 weeks) with more frequent longer breaks during the school year. For example, for the 2018-19 school year Bayern (Bavaria), including München, has one week of Herbstferien (fall vacation, usually in October), two weeks of Weihnachtsferien (over Christmas and New Years), one week of Winterferien (early March), two weeks of Osterferien (mid April over Easter), two weeks of Pfingstferien (Pentecost holiday in June), and 6 weeks of Sommerferien (very end of July to early September). Plus there are monthly Feiertage (single day holidays) that are either Catholic or National holidays where the banks, schools, and businesses all shut down. Only small businesses such as little souvenir shops, gastronomes, and museums are open on those days. The same applies to all Sundays! Can you imagine Walmart and Target not being open on a Sunday?! Well, that's the norm here. Anyway... the next posts are a log of our Herbstferien trip to visit a bunch of our German friends and "family." Since my parents also lived in Germany in their 20's and cultivated a number of relationships over the years, we get to benefit by continuing those connections and passing them on to the next generation. So, there was some sight-seeing but mostly a lot of visiting on this trip. We stopped off near Frankfurt, then on to Bonn and Köln, then Lübeck and Hamburg in northern Germany, and Wolfsburg before driving through  the former eastern block to return to München. We put 2,528 km on the odometer in 9 days.

Saturday, October 27

My mom's "German sister" HB (mom lived with her family as a high school exchange student for the year between high school and college) lives in a small Dorf, Usingen, near Frankfurt. She's now retired, but in the middle of moving from one apartment to another, so rather than hosting us at her home, we met for breakfast at the Usingen Rathaus Café. J stayed with GE in car since her stomach was still iffy and he had hurt his back (unfortunately for him--car trips are absolutely the worst thing he can do when his back seizes up!). The spent the time with her resting in the back seat while he read to her from the Belgariad series, one of J's favorite re-aloud book series (I think this is the third time he's read them out loud to the kids). Eggs, fruit, Brötchen, Fleisch, Käse... good coffee. I took a picture with HB but it was in WhatsApp and since I wasn't on wi-fi I failed to send it and it didn't save! :(

The sweet little Fachwerk building in Usingen that was once upon a time the seat of governing for the area.

After saying our good-byes on the sidewalk beside our parked rental car, we enjoyed a beautiful fall drive through the Hessen countryside. We could see the castle Montabaur and the famous cathedral of Limburg from afar. Wish we had more time to stop and look!

When we got to Bonn, we first dropped off ME at YH's and then HR at EO's. The girls were both incredibly excited, but nervous, to see their old "besties" from our year in Bonn. You can see them with their friends in these old posts: ME with YH (first photos from ME's Klassenfahrt trip) and HR with EO (scroll down to HR's birthday party, April 12th; EO is the little girl on HR's right in the photos at the table).

Once the bigger girls were settled, we took a little driving tour of our old stopping grounds, including a stop for GE to see her old kindergarten, and then we ate a picnic lunch on a bench at the Klufterplatz (GE just had some crackers and juice), followed by a cup of coffee (and hot chocolate for GE) at the Eis Café where we used to regularly go for weekend treats. Mid-afternoon we met SR for tea at Einfach Himmelisch Café, new since we left. We got to know SR through the Pauluskirche while we lived in Bonn. She and her husband have four children too. We helped arrange for their older son, SnR, to come to the US to live with one of Joshua's cousins for a while after we returned from Bonn. We enjoyed talking about her book project, what their children are doing, and how life is going for SnR. Poor little GE fell asleep on the bench at the table in the cafe while we talked. Afterwards, we walked around our old neighborhood until our host LC got home. Since she had been out all day for a Quaker Friends meeting in Köln, she had made reservations for us to eat together at the local restaurant across the street, Gaststätte Huth. Even her dog, Caitlyn, came along which GE loved (only in Germany! Dogs come into the shops, restaurants, etc.). GE managed to eat most of her dinner and was ready to go to bed immediately when we got back to their house. Glad her stomach bug wasn't worse!

Standing outside her former Kindergarten. She only vaguely remembered the entrance and building. Even when we walked around to the back side to look into the playground, it still didn't ring bells. But when she thinks about Kindergarten in Bonn, she remembers the inside play areas pretty clearly--interesting since that is one of the places I couldn't take picture in.

Hot chocolate for stomach bug recovery? Not sure... But it stayed down, so I guess that's what counts!

Fall colors on the hill I used to run up with my Laufengruppe.

We wandered back into the Biohof (organic micro farm) where I used to pick up cheese, bread, eggs, and other organic foods. The kids used to come to feed the pigs and rabbits.

Sunday, October 28

We abandoned our plans to attend the Pauluskirche service since both our favorite choir director and the pastor were not going to be there. That gave us time to join ME at her friends' apartment and have brunch with her mom, VH and brother IH. While IH filled J in on what computer games he's been playing lately, VH filled me in on what had happened to her in the last few years (cancer, new job, divorce, oh my!). We had been friends the year we were in Bonn, but I felt a new and deeper appreciation for her strength and smarts. She had to overcome some incredible obstacles in the last 2 years and did so with grace and fortitude. I also have a new appreciation for the German health care system, job support, and sick time off. If she had been in the US under the same circumstances (she was a house-wife until her husband abruptly left her and the two teenage kids), she'd probably be homeless or, at a minimum, struggling to juggle minimum wage jobs (she doesn't have a college degree or formal training) and cancer treatment with little to no health care coverage (she didn't have a job until *after* her cancer diagnosis and even though she was newly hired, she could take the sick time she needed when she went through chemo and recovered from surgery). Instead, her medical care was covered and the city's job bureau assisted her with finding decent employment. She could get a lawyer to help get some money from her ex and secure an affordable apartment. Her kids have gotten mental health care to deal with it all, and she now has a decent resume and is in remission. They have a warm, clean, apartment in a safe neighborhood. She and her kids now have German citizenship (they are originally from Siberia/Russia and moved to Germany when YH was 4 years old) and she's looking for a better job now that she's officially in remission. We are hoping they can come visit us next summer--it's been a standing invitation, but this time I went into more detail about what it could look like and she is confident she can make it happen. ME is thrilled, of course--the two girls picked up like there hadn't been any time in between (4 years since they last saw each other during ME's summer visit when she turned 11). 

Plans are already taking shape for ME to spend her Winterferien in Bonn--this time the whole week with YH! HR wants to go stay with EO again too. Where will GE go? That's in the works too... which will leave me and J free to do something else!

What a spread!!

After we finished eating and visiting, we picked up HR from her friend's apartment (just a few minutes way) and drove to Köln to meet our good friend, VM and her little guy at the Lindt Schokoladenmuseum. VM's family have been friends of my family's since the 1980's when her dad, a high school German teacher, participated in a German-US school exchange and taught at Hesston High School in Kansas. VM was in first grade with me and my twin sister, and since our dad was the German professor at Hesston College at the time, our families connected. Then when our family moved to Marburg in 1985, we reconnected, spent some weekends together and then a Weihnachtsferien together in Bettmeralp, Switzerland. We're actually planning to spend one week of our Weihnachtsferien with all of them again in Bettmeralp next month (I CAN'T WAIT!). We've also sent our oldest daughter, MK, to stay with VM and her husband, CN, during the summer (in 2016 and in 2018). She has a special bond with their little guy, F. While we were living in Bonn, we got together with them on the regular: Kölner Weihnachtsmarkt and Karnival, for starters!

We got to Köln early and after parking the car in a garage and depositing J at a café with WiFi so he could do some writing, the girls and I found a spot in another café, Small and Tall's, on the edge of the Heumarkt to sip some warm drinks (it was cold along the Rhein!) until it was time to meet VM at the Lindt Schokoladenmuseum.

 

 

The little guy, FN, was not immediately enraptured by the three big girls, even though he knows and loves their big sister, MK. It took him the whole afternoon to warm up, but by dinner time he was chatting up a storm and filling us in on his favorite animal at the zoo and more!

GE literally wanted to read everything. We kept having to shoo her along to the next room.

These two! They have a new bond this year--sharing a room and going to the same upper-level school. What a hoot!

This chocolate fountain was a hit the last time we were here in 2012--also with VM! ME and HR remembered it, but GE didn't. She was in love...

The vacuum plate doing it's robot thing! See the spot where a chocolate is missing? That's because it got dropped into a little side chute and deposited on the outside for visitors to do a "quality control" check. Good?! Excellent!!

 

 

Little bundles of these milk chocolates are handed out to each visitor as they leave the museum.

 

Last stop: pick up the custom ordered chocolate bars from the factory store.

After we finished up there, we walked through the Altstadt a bit, revisiting some favorite spots and refreshing the girls' memories, then found a good German restaurant, Brauerei Pfäggen Kölsch, to enjoy dinner together before heading back to Bonn for the night. For the record: GE has completely recovered from her Friday night stomach bug and no one else seems to have succumbed to it!

She wanted to see if she could get across to the top of the fountain... She didn't.

Yes, she had a glass of Kölsch. 15 year olds are permitted to have alcohol in the presence of their parents. She also had the Knödel (dumplings) and was not impressed. The texture was too weird for her taste! I guess you have to start young...

Saying good-bye until Christmas in Bettmeralp!

The Schokoladenmuseum by night.

Monday, October 29

We have a crammed schedule! What's sleep for anyway? We rolled ourselves out of bed around 7 a.m. and picked up the older girls from their friends' homes so we could go to one of my old haunts: Bad Godesberg pedestrian zone. I used to do my near-daily grocery shopping here after dropping off GE at her Kindergarten. I have very fond memories of this little zone. We met our friend AB, the choir director and organist from the Pauluskirche, for breakfast at the Epi Boulangerie, a favorite hangout from our year in Bonn. It was lovely to chat with her, reminisce, and contemplate the possibility of another EMS Touring Choir visit to the Pauluskirche in 2021 (they just visited and performed there in June 2018). We had some downtime after we said our farewells, so J set up camp in a corner to write while I took the girls with me to do some winter boot shopping.

The Fussgängerzone has changed a little but the favorites were all still there! Success! I found a pair that work with my custom orthotic inserts at Schuhhaus Schwaeppe (if you know me and my boots, you know I've been wearing the same pair of black leather winter boots that I bought in Bad Godesberg in 2012--I got them at this shoe store. Sadly they don't carry that brand anymore, but they still had amazing selection and prices). ME and GE found boots at what I thought was a new shop, but turned out to just be an expansion of another I'd been to before, Das Haus der Schuhe Landgraf.

Once again remembered to take a picture of my breakfast (a "Nordic" plate: smoked salmon, egg, greens) but forgot to get a picture with AB!

Walking through the pedestrian zone, we stumbled onto the crêpe stand where MK used to get a treat after her weekly dance class! She only told me about this later, after we'd moved back to the US. I think she was afraid I'd scold her for getting a Nutella crêpe every week!

While we were shopping, our friend, MD called to say that her heat was out and we needed to adjust our plans a little so that she could stay at the house to wait for the repairmen. Originally we were going to meet her at the stables where they keep their pony and let the girls ride around the stable track a bit. Instead, we went to her house for lunch--the girls were a little disappointed, but in the end were happy to go play with the Playmobil in the attic instead of being out in the cold. After a light soup lunch, we headed to Köln again to explore.

This time we parked in another neighborhood and took the subway to the Dom so that our car would be near the restaurant where we were meeting MD's daughter LLS and son LD for supper. Then we did a very 21st century thing: we played "The Secrets of Cologne," an online riddle game. We had to solve little puzzles to find out about historical facts and points of interest all around the Altstadt and along the Rhein. It was quite fun! At one point GE said she "loved" this kind of exploring (we may need to keep that in mind for other big city trips). We started in front of the Dom and had to answer a riddle (there were hints when we got stuck) in order to get directions to the next spot for another riddle. It was a fun way to keep the wandering interesting for the girls. We stopped for a snack at the Merzenich Bäckerei when we passed back around near the Dom. We got through 14 of the 16 clues before we had to break off to get back to the subway to the restaurant for dinner at Café Jakubowski.

Our first clue was about how tall the filial is on the Dom. The next asked us to find and go past the "thirsty lions".

See my new boots? I was glad for them--it was chilly and the boots are lined. GE is wearing her new ankle high shoes with Goretex, also lined. She said her toes were "nice and toasty" all day.

We had to keep dragging ME along to the next clue--she just wanted to take pictures.

We swung over to the huge "lock bridge" over the Rhein before going down the stairs to the shore to look for our next clue--this one wanted us to calculate how much farther it was to bike to Leverkusen instead of Dormagen (it's farther to Dormagen). We had to find the bike path km marker signs along the shoreline bike trail.

When we got down to the river shoreline, one of the girls noticed that the water in a series of pools was steaming, so she stuck her hand in. It was warm, almost hot! Just a "Wasser Spielplatz" for kids. How about that!

One of the clues asked us to take a selfie and suggested we share it to the game company's Instagram account. We took the selfie, but we didn't post it. :)

Without the clue asking us to look for the characters in these tile panels, we would never have looked up and seen them at all! The clue? "What changed color on the main character?" Answer: "Nose"! He must have had a little too much Kölsch to drink!

Check out ME's snug boots! They're "fur" lined (it's fake) and she can let the tops flop over if she wants a different look. Also, warm and water-proof (mom-requirement).

A really scrumptious dinner salad at Café Jakubowski.

GE with LSD (right) and LD's girlfriend (left).

Hitching a ride on MD's bicycle which she had left with her daughter after spending the weekend with her. It got a ride back to Bonn on the back of MD's car.

Then we piled back into our rental car and took sleepy girls back to their friends homes for one more night. Tomorrow it's on to northern Germany!