Out and About

Even though it seems that we're not really doing anything except waiting for the weather to "spring up", we've been doing quite a bit.

Dressing up for Fasching, the German equivalent of Carnival. Claire went as a flower. We had a blast making her costume and she was absolutely lovely, although a bit disappointed that she was the only student at school who chose not to wear a store-bought costume. And not because she was different; she thought buying a costume was a waste of good money.

Driving on the Autobahn. Exciting and scary all at the same time. Germans really do drive fast, fast, fast, and one time on a nice straight-away Mark took us up to 200 km/hr. Who knew our little Opal rental wagon could go so fast?

Spending time with my brother Ray as his first stop on a 2-month European tour. Showing him around the city and getting him on a train to Prague really gave a boost to my self-confidence; I've learned so much in such a short time.

A visit to the Versailles of East Germany, the Heidecksburg Palace. Wow. Placed in context of the early 1700's, this place was quite impressive. Each piece of furniture, each tapestry and carving, all the made-to-order handwork of great artists. The palace burned in 1735 and was renovated, then became a museum in the early 1900's.

Here's Ben and I skating our way across the main ballroom in little slippers we had to wear over our shoes so as not to scuff the floors. The decor in this room was literally jaw-dropping; the whole ceiling was an amazing painted mural and I can only imagine the kind of parties that went on here, maybe something akin to the ball in Cinderella. Higher up near the ceiling were small alcoves where the musicians sat to play their music. Everything was gilded and sparkly.

This past Sunday we attended an honest-to-goodness traveling family circus. There were contortionists and clowns and fire-eaters and camels and horses and goats and freshly-spun cotton candy.

It was an intimate venue, so small that we could smell the camels the moment they came through the flap in the tent and could feel the heat on our faces from the arcs of fire blown by two of the performers. In the states, a fire marshall would have shut this place down in two seconds flat. I love that the Germans are not as conservative as we are in so many respects.

On Thursday morning we are getting in a rental car and heading out to Amsterdam for a few days via a little town called Bad Wildungen. It's a no-brainer that we have to visit and snap a photo of the kids there. I am rereading Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl in preparation for a visit to the "Secret Annexe" in Amsterdam. We're also hoping to get the kids on a canal boat tour, something Mark and I did not have time to do on our last visit.

P.S. Thanks for all the birthday wishes. I had a great day and a very fun evening. Joslin cooked dinner for me and then us "girls" went out to a nice bar called "Mangoes" where they serve foo-foo drinks of the blended sort, and we talked and laughed for hours.