Back in the Motherland

Georg and I have brought the baby to Deutschland to visit his Oma and Opa! We had Elden's baptism on April 28th, along with a marriage blessing and party. About 100 people celebrated with us, a few for the second time! Since we have been here, things have been pretty low-key...just getting through everyday life with a 5-month old. However, Because we are only planning on staying in Germany for 2.5 months, Georg and I are deeming this trip a "working holiday". To coincide with a visit from my friend, Krista, we have taken a week off from farm life and are visiting Munich and Prague this week. On Sunday, we drove the 600km journey from Geldern to Munich, stopping at the Deutsche Ecke (joining of the Rhein and Mosel rivers) in Koblenz on the way. Elden is a terrific traveler! He sleeps and plays in the car and we just stop every 2-3 hours to feed him at a rest stop.

The meeting of the Mosel and Rhein rivers.

We were toured around Munich by Georg's sister...drinking the world-famous Mass of beer at typical Munich-style Brauhauses or beer gardens, eating white sausage with mustard, touring the farmer's markets. We also paid for a tour of the Altstadt, so we got to see many of the beautiful, post WW2-reconstructed buildings and hear the Glockenspiel (ringing of the bells) from the Rathaus (town hall) bell tower on the Marienplatz.

Mmmm, beer! Munich style!

On Tuesday, we took a 50km detour on our way to Prague...to a small town in Austria. The reason: we simply wanted to say that we had visited Fucking, Austria! Yup, this little town is called Fucking. We saw Fucking houses, Fucking cows, and even went on a Fucking walk. :D The drive into Prague was breath-taking! Although Krista and I were comparing the ornate, tall buildings to those of Amsterdam, Paris, and sometimes Italy, this city has it's own majesty.

We were in Fucking Austria!!

We spent Wednesday and Thursday mastering the subway system and toured the castle, the Old Town, and Jewish quarter of Prague. Pushing the stroller up the cobblestone walkway towards the Prague castle perched on a hill overlooking the city was a feat in itself, but totally worth the energy (or I assume that is what Georg would think!). This 'castle' is more of a small, fancy city confined to the top of a hill within the safety of thick stone walls. There are ornately decorated buildings, a substantial cathedral, numerous courtyards, and even the cute Golden Lane where villagers lived. We witnessed the changing of the guard, with trumpets to provide the tempo. The church and surrounding buildings in the Old Town square were mind-blowing with all the ornate details. Although we didn't try too much of the local cuisine, we did manage to sample some crepes. Supposedly Prague does have a traditional crepe with creme cheese and jam, but we couldn't find a restaurant that had them.

None of us had ever seen such long escalators as were in the Prague subway - they were scary steep!!

A view of Prague from the castle.

The beautifully ornate buildings of Prague.

More beautiful buildings.

The Golden Lane, where villagers lived in the Prague castle.

Friday was spent weaving our way home on various Autobahns. However, we did make 2 longer stops to help break up the 800km monotony for Elden. Our first stop was at Festung Koenigstein, the largest fortress in Germany. It had pretty impressive set-up with gardens, armories, a church, governor's house, and several strongholds. We also stopped at a small concentration camp, where Hitler had prisoners fabricate rockets inside mountain tunnels. Not much remains of the original buildings - mostly just foundations and a few scattered bricks. Only the crematorium is original, with all other buildings razed to the ground shortly after the war ended. The entire grounds were covered in trees and grass and had I not known the history of the place, I would have found the walk around very nice. I found it hard to believe that so many people were murdered in such a beautiful area, although I'm sure the feelings and emotions at the time were much different than what I experienced there.

Ruins of a barrack, where the prisons lived.

Ruins of the kitchen facilities at KZ-Dora

Paintings on the walls in the crematorium/experimental facility had "happy" pictures. Talk about messed up!

Georg and I have learned that, once again, Elden is a terrific traveler... otherwise this trip would have been incredibly stressful! Even though I missed out on my afternoon naps, I was able to sleep enough to enjoy the sights and the company. Thanks Krista for helping Georg and I with Elden! And Elden, thanks for being an awesome baby!!

Enjoying a walk from the vantage point of Papa's shoulders.