The Wedding (Friedrich V and Elisabeth Stuart)

Last weekend, the city of Heidelberg celebrated/commemorated the 400th anniversary of the wedding between Frederick V, the Elector of the Palatinate (later briefly the Winter King of Bohemia - for the history nerds) and Elisabeth Stuart (granddaughter of Mary Stuart). The two had an arranged marriage, but the two teenagers (they were both 16 at the time of their wedding) apparently fell deeply in love and    produced 13 children! They were married in London with great pomp and circumstance on Valentine's Day 1613, but when they arrived in Heidelberg several months later, they were celebrated by the town. This was the event, the city tried to recreate.  They hired some moderately well-known television actors to play the loving couple. There were installations all over the city all weekend long to recreate the life and times from 400 years ago, the couple paraded around the city, etc. The whole event was mostly a marketing event, but we managed to have a lot of fun with it nonetheless.

On Saturday, we spent the whole day in the city with Alex's friend Claire and her family. We started on one of the squares in town where they had set up fun and games for kids that were vaguely historically appropriate. The kids started out slowly by making some bead bracelets.

But Alex quickly got into the action. Here he is fighting with one of the knights.

You can only imagine his joy at being handed this crossbow!

I think in this picture you can see both his joy and his concentration. He did hit the wooden hedgehog and the wooden bunny on the second attempt.

At another booth, the kids were encouraged to throw rings at targets and you can see the basket of goodies on the table. It provided ample motivation!

Here Alex is learning how to hurl little sacks against a target.

And in this - fairly creepy - game, a real life mouse had to find its way through a maze.

Since the terrible mothers would only let the kids eat one lollipop (and not the three that they had won), the kids improvised and put cherry tomatoes on their sticks and pretended they were suckers.

After all this excitement, we took a break at a fabulous pan-Asian restaurant in town, where the kids colored while we waited for our yummy food. It wasn't historically accurate, but way more appealing and delicious that what was being served by the booths all around the city. 

We then headed to the University Square in the middle of Old Town Heidelberg where a group of historical re-enactors had set up a camp. They even brought a falconry! We were all duly impressed.

 It was all really fun, especially, once we discovered the canon ...

and they even shot it off!

We happened to be there when the happy couple and their entourage arrived and the kids waved their flags,

as the famous couple passed right by us!

In the end, the kids liked climbing on the windows just as much as seeing the prince and princess.

We kept wandering around the city and met up with the festivities again on the main Old Town Square where the famous couple greeted the crowds from the balcony of the town hall (and the current mayor was briefly booed when he addressed the assembled people as subjects!). 

Then we watched the couple get into their carriage and drive away. 

We walked around town a bit more to enjoy the life and pageantry, but then we all headed home to rest and absorb all that we had done and seen today.

The following day, the pageantry in Heidelberg continued and this time Alex and I set out by ourselves.  Our first stop was the Old Town Square again, because Alex has been pining for one of the souvenirs there for months and today we had brought the money from his piggy bank and he bought the prize himself with his own money! He carefully considered his options, 

chose a likeness of the Heidelberg castle,

and is proudly showing off his purchase!

Then we headed up the hill to the castle,

where they had set up lots of wooden games in the gardens for people to play and enjoy. The weather was perfect and the atmosphere was just wonderful. We were there for many hours.

Alex wanted to try everything.

All people played together. Here Alex is trying to beat this lady by shooting all his chips into the well before she does. They loved playing together. I can't even remember who won.

They had this big wooden wall with holes in it and two people had to work together pulling the rope to maneuver the golden ball all the way to the top.

Alex and I played several times and we made it each time. He really paid close attention and listened to my instructions.

Here you had to shoot/roll the wooden disks through the doors at the end.

And then there was the ring-toss, a perennial favorite. Alex played this for a long time, hoping to improve.

At some point, an elderly gentleman joined him and the two of them played against each other.

In the midst of all the games, a marching band (in 18th century costumes!) appeared and gave a 30-minute concert. Alex listened intently and asked me all sorts of question, including why they only play marching songs. Hmm.

But then we went back to the games

and enjoyed the fountains and the gardens. 

Various actors dressed in fun and frilly costumes wandered around the other spectators and made the atmosphere especially festive.

Of course, no visit to the castle is complete without a popsicle. 

Once we came back down the hill, we were surprised by another parade down the main pedestrian street.

In the end, we spent two perfect summer days in a beautiful city.

Another move

In the past 7 months, we moved 3 times. Even though I had registered for the university guest house about a year before our arrival, by the time they got my request, there were only 1 bedroom apartments left for the time of our stay. However, twice 2-bedroom places opened up unexpectedly and we were able to move in for a time. It was worth for the extra space, but also uprooting and annoying. Well, at the beginning of August, our time in the guest house was finally over and we moved a final time - to housesit for our friends while they're on vacation in Iceland!

It felt weird to say good-bye to the apartment complex that had been our home since late December. We had a huge variety of experiences there, welcomed guests, and made memories. Now it was time to start saying good bye. 

Even though we don't have that much stuff, getting it all packed up and moved was a huge job every time. This final time, our friend Janet (Victoria's mom) graciously helped. I had packed our 4 big suitcases, but we also had many shopping bags of groceries, toiletries, and many many borrowed things from the Föhr's. It all had to come down from the third floor, get transferred to her car, driven across town and carried back up 3 flights of stairs. Did I mention that it was in the 90s. Ugh!

Well, we made it and staying at our friends' place is awesome. Our apartments have been nice. They've had everything one needs for life, but being in a real lived in place suffused with the love and presence of our friends is just great. Not to mention that it's in a perfect location. 

We didn't even unpack any of Alex's toys, since there were lots of things (including Legos!) ready to go. He got started building right away!

The neighborhood is almost impossibly picturesque,

not to mention right near the awesome Neckar playground!

We will stay here for just under 2 weeks and then we'll head off to Italy for our vacation!!

A summer weekend at the pool

After so many exciting days with friends, family, and pirates, we spent the whole next weekend lounging at the pool. On Saturday, we met up with Alex's friend Claire and her family at one of our favorite Heidelberg outdoor pools. We brought enough snacks to last us all day and our friends even had a little tent where the kids could hide from the scorching sun.

Alex can't quite swim yet (though he can go a fair length of the pool), but he loves to dive. At one point  in the water he became very excited, because he though he could see some coins at the bottom. We all encouraged him, and he did bring up 3 coins for a total of EUR 1,40! Here is proudly showing off his loot!

On Sunday, Victoria's mother and her sister took us along to a pool in Neckargmünd, a small town a few miles down the river. We lounged in the shade, sun, and water all day. Here, the friends are cuddling and warming up after a long swim.

Later, they sat in the sun and played.

The two days with new friends were relaxing and wonderful!

A Pirate Adventure

Months ago I saw an advertisement for a "pirate cruise" for kids on the Neckar. Since Alex has been really interested in pirates and vikings lately, I thought this would be a fun adventure for us. I didn't realize at the time, it was the day immediately following our friends' visit.

Well, I picked Alex up early from school and we headed down to the Neckar. He wore his pirate shirt, a bandana, and I drew an eye-patch and some stubble onto his face, so he would look like a real pirate.

The ship was already there when we arrived, flying the jolly roger and was lovingly decorated. The crew were all dressed up as pirates as well and Alex spent a while trying to figure out if they were real pirates or people just dressed up as pirates. It was fun to follow his logic.

We were the first people on board!

Alex was thrilled to discover that real eye-patches were to be had, so he quickly added one to his outfit.

Once the ship pushed off, the main 'pirate' started telling stories and playing games with the kids. There was even a treasure hunt all over the ship and a treasure chest full of candy.

They played games on deck and under deck.

After Alex got his balloon sword, there was no stopping him.

And so we cruised for 3.5 hours along the lovely Neckar all the way to Neckargmünd and back -

not that anyone on board noticed the beautiful landscape...

In the end, all the kids received a final prize

and this little pirate was pretty tired. Happy, but tired.