A trip to Ladenburg

Because of a big plan for Sunday (more on that in the next post), I rented a car for the first weekend in June. We picked ip up on Saturday morning, but had no real plans. The weather was still kind of yucky, but it seemed a shame to let a rental car just sit in the parking lot. So, we picked up Annika (all the other Föhrs had other commitments) and drove to the nearby town of Ladenburg. Annika who is 11 had biked there numerous times with her family on weekend outings and had also visited the town recently with her Latin class. She turned out to be a wonderful (age appropriate) tour guide.

Our first stop was a great Döner place (not exactly traditional German food, but so yummy and ubiquitous as to have become a German staple) and sufficiently fortified, we started our tour of the little town.

The kids played around with the various sculptures we encountered, such as this goat.

Annika did a great job leading us to all sorts of historical markers and there was plenty of history to read about!

Ladenburg is one of those German towns that has a history that literally spans millennia. There were Roman ruins to see.

Ladenburg also had an important residence for ecclesiastical leaders of the middle ages, particularly, the bishops of Worms.

There was a great statue representing the protracted struggle between secular and ecclesiastical authority in the middle ages. Alex re-enacted these statues.

Here he is as the secular prince:

and here as the bishop of Worms:

Some early modern fountains are de rigeur, of course.

As is a medieval town wall.

Fortunately, Annika also knew where some of the best playgrounds were to be found:

and had great ideas about how to use the historical markers to good effect.

It turned out (who knew?) that Carl Benz lived in worked in Ladenburg and we got to see his house:

as well as one of his first cars.

This 'car' made no sense to Alex and he asked lots of questions about when, why, and how someone first invented a car. Also, it was hard for him to recognize this vehicle as a car.

Finally, we had ice cream.

Thanks, Annika, for a great day in Ladenburg.

Silly boy

Over the past few weeks, I have taken a bunch of silly pictures of Alex which don't let themselves get molded so easily into a narrative, but I wanted to share some of them anyway.

Here he is during a hospital visit making a funny face with a soft pretzel.

Or how about the sequence of him perfecting a new skill: shaving in the tub with bubbles and a wooden popsickle stick.

Then, of course, there's the newly designed dessert: watermelon with gummy bear:

Here Alex and his favorite stuffed animal (Pooh-y) are sitting on a statue of a rabbit on the way home from school.

Back at the Zoo

In order to make up for lost time, we decided to go back to the zoo just a few days after I got out of the hospital. Alex was excited to spend time with his best Kindergarten friend Victoria! We met in the morning and spent almost all day together exploring the zoo and the playgrounds.

Our first stop was the seal show.

Alex and Victoria found a cozy spot to hang out and watch the show.

They had fun feeding and 'grooming' some of the animals in the petting zoo area.

They enjoyed the playgrounds as much as the animal displays.

Mostly, they enjoyed each other's company!

Visits from Omi and other friends

Well, just 24 hours after our friends left, I wasn't feeling well and found a weird rash on my belly. I saw a doctor who decided it was just a little contact allergy and sent me home. We made plans to go to a great park in Mannheim with friends from Alex's school for the next day. But in the morning I was feeling worse and went back to the doctor while our friends took Alex for the day. Long story short - after spending about 10 hrs at the urgent care place, they figured out that I apparently had a raging infection under the scar from the last surgery and by the time I was admitted to the hospital (around 8pm that evening) I had a fever of over 105! Alex spent the night (and the next!) with our new friends and I went into surgery that night. All's well that ends well. Our friends were amazing! They kept Alex safe, having fun, and in good spirits for 3 days by which time my mom got here. I ended up staying in the hospital for 17 days (!), but am doing totally fine now. Thanks to modern medicine, especially antibiotics!

While I was in the hospital, my mom was a superhero! With some help of friends, but mostly by herself she took care of everything! Yesterday, Alex told be apropos of nothing that he loves Omi most of all in our family. I asked him if that meant that he loves her more than me and he said yes. I'm so glad that they have such a great and close relationship - though I would like to be his #1.

Unfortunately, I almost missed two wonderful visits during my time in the hospital. The first was from my cousin who I hadn't seen since 1987! She was coming to Germany with her little daughter and we had planned to see each other. Well, she was not deterred by my condition and came to Heidelberg anyway! Her brother, his son, she and and her daughter all came to the house where my mom fed the whole crew and then they all came over to the hospital for a visit. It was so great to see them!  Even though we hadn't been together for 26 years, we had a wonderful time and I look forward to seeing them again soon.

The other visit was from 2 of my very best friends from college! We had planned this weeks/months ago and we weren't going to let a little hospital stay get in the way. Stephanie arrived from Florida and stayed for a little over a week. Katie came in just for a day (!) on her way from Georgia back to the US. We spent a wonderful day on the sunny terrace of the hospital, chatting, laughing, and just being friends. It was an amazing experience! I don't think very many people got visitors who had traveled quite that far.

Stephanie was here long enough to see me get released and we went out for dinner one night while my mom babysat.

Thanks for coming everyone. We love you!

We're still here! A visit from friends - and a pirate ship!

Well, lots has happened in the past almost 2 months. We're still in Germany and I'd love to catch everyone up on what we've been doing. I'm sorry that I haven't been better at blogging regularly, but I will try to be better at it in the remaining few months.

At the end of April, my dear and wonderful friend Karina came to visit us in Heidelberg. We went to school together back in the 20th century and have been great friends ever since. Our lives have taken us to many unexpected places, and we have not lived in the same country (usually not even the same continent) for most of the time since we met. Currently, Karina lives with her family in Milan, which is about as close as we've been to each other since High School. So, still on maternity leave and with her 7 week-old son in tow, she got in a car and drove to Heidelberg. We had a blast! We spent lots of time just hanging out and talking, admiring her sweet baby boy. Alex loved holding Orlando, making him laugh, and was just generally infatuated with him.

But, it wouldn't be a true visit from Karina, if we didn't also spend time exploring. Although the weather was dismal (cold, rainy, and generally dreary) we went to Worms to see the cathedral and have a wonderful lunch of white asparagus, which was not only in season right then, but is also one of the main culinary claims to fame of this area. It came with a rich and delicious hollandaise and we paired it with a crisp local white wine. Who says you can't have a good time on a cold and rainy day? Also, we got to see the burial crypt of the Salic kings of the middle ages!

Another day, we all went to Speyer. There is, of course, another impressive and important cathedral there. We found the crypt as well. This time there were also sarcophagi, but Alex particularly liked/was horrified by this lion.

Of course, we also made time for a yummy lunch sampling local specialties, this time Flammkuchen, which is a kind of paper thin pizza (though not made of yeast dough) and traditionally topped with sour cream, onions, and bacon! (Alex ordered crepes - a recent favorite!)

Of course, we also explored Heidelberg together and for a short while were even blessed with a little dry weather. Probably the most enduring legacy of their visit, however, at least from Alex's perspective was the amazing Playmobil pirate ship which Karina got for the lucky boy. I guess she was impressed with his recently acquired love for all things pirate and viking. He was surprised and thrilled when she unveiled the box after school one day and here they can be seen spending the rest of the afternoon putting together the masterpiece!

Thanks for a wonderful visit, dear friends. We hope to see you again this summer - this time on your turf in Italy.