Memmingen, Germany 47.99543N 10.18232E

Heading back to Switzerland, we stopped for the night in Memmingen. No particular reason other than wanting to get groceries and there was an inexpensive stellplatz. We were in for a pleasant surprise. Sadly, I didn't have the camera with us and we stayed only 1-day.

For pictures, check out the city's web site - we saw most of the "red" route: http://www.memmingen.de/593.html

The Stellplatz is located right outside the moat and the city is accessible only through one of the gates. From the link above, the best indication of our path is the Green Route link "Luginsland." We walked the outer ring of the city (scroll to the bottom and see the image next to "Neue Welt") and entered at the Luginsland corner tower. The walk continued around the canal until we could find a side-street to allow us access to the city.

I'm not doing the history of the city any favors here - but it's all detailed on their web site. Beautiful place for a brief stop over. We thoroughly enjoyed the quick tour.

I wouldn't have made the blog post, but that I think some readers will really enjoy the pictures of the old city (red route) and in addition, am trying to finish back-filling the details of our journey to date.

Cheers!

Oktoberfest

During our visit to Munich, we visited Oktoberfest a few times during the middle of the week and the middle of the day. On one occassion, I split forces with Dan and took Megan for just a few hours of going on rides. The expansiveness of the fairgrounds is one thing, but the size of the beer halls is just unbelievable.

Some pictures from our experiences follow.

Huge ferris wheel and view from the top:

(Note: I realize in these first pictures, it looks like no one is at the festival. These were taken on a Tuesday morning around 11am. It was crowded just a few hours later that day. When we visited again later in the week around 6pm, the lanes were crowded and lines had already formed to get inside the beer halls. When Dan and Aaron went back the last Saturday evening of Oktoberfest, it took them about 1-hour to make it in to a beer hall.)

Glimpse of the beer halls: (note: These are not the same beer hall. Each hall has a different theme and speciality.)

Beer - Oktoberfest Sized (note: groups reserve the tables up to 1-year in advance. On this day, all tables were reserved, but we were there a bit before the reservation block and were able to enjoy as long as we left in time. The kids grooved on the largest pretzel ever and gummy bears):

Family Day: Mom and Megan cut loose one day and enjoyed the rides. At some point, Megan decided she doesn't like roller coasters. I finally coaxed her into going on the "log ride." Afterwards, she kept asking why I had "tricked her" into going on it. To Dan, she couldn't stop talking about how much fun the ride was. Funny kid.

Oh, and for the experts in German pastries out there: Yes, I realized post-purchase that the item she's eating had a rum-flavored custard filling. And, yes, the custart was removed prior to consumption. =)

Heidelberg, Germany

We stayed at a fantastic campground just outside of Heidelberg, Camping-Haide. Right on the Neckar River with fantastic weather - probably mid-to-high 70's (farenheit, for those international readers). Lovely city... more later including pictures.

Ciao for now!

15.October - Belatedly adding some pictures and comments from our Heidelberg experience - enjoy! According to the city web site, the town has about 150k residents and over 3.5M tourists per year. This is one of the first spots that we ran in to other Americans, making for fun dinner companions one evening and for lively conversation at the top of the church tower.

1. Family dinner in the city center ... we were caught off guard with the informality of how paying for one's food works at outdoor diners. First let's acknowledge, that to the world's tiniest tables, they bring the biggest dishes. Not sure how we did it, but we were able to fit 4 very oversized plates, 2 beers and two glasses of water on the over burdened table. After ordering and enjoying our food and beverages, the waiter asked us what we had consumed! He tallied it up in his head on the spot and we agreed on a price... we were astounded at the informality of the whole exchange.

2. Church tower & interior shot (sorry - can't find the name of it right now... it's the church in front of the Rathaus.)

3. Heidelberg Castle - yes, the kids walked up the entire way. To tired little ones, ice cream spells happiness.

4. Heidelburg Tun - Massive wine vat... Inside Heidelberg Castle, one finds a pharmaceutical museum and the largest wine vat, capable of holding about 55k gallons (I doubt even I could drink that much in a lifetime...). To give perspective on the size, I've shown the stairs you descend after climbing to the top of the vat. Whew. Hope those supports don't give way.

Köln, Germany (aka: Cologne, Germany)

What a fantastic city!
We are back in Germany, enjoying camping near a huge, beautiful city. The spot is a "Reisemobile" spot - basically a parking lot with water/dump station near by and electrical boxes that you run extenstion cords to. The cost is 8EUR per night + 1EUR each 12 hours for electricty and an additial 1EUR per about 40 liters of water. The only downside is the water and dump station were a little inconvient to access for us.

To our great surprise, we finally were not the biggest RV in the lot! We were neighbors with a gentleman from Switzerland who is traveling in a Newmar. Was nice to not be the sole source of attention for once.

With the bikes, we were about a 10-minute ride to Köln Centrum. So cool to ride under the bus tunnel and surface at the Kolner Dom, the largest Gothic church. Megan and Sophia are adamant that we visit, promising to be good. I think they just are in awe at the size and beauty of the churches we've ventured in so far.

We also found our first Starbucks of the trip - right outside the Dom - enjoyed a caffiene boost in the middle of the afternoon. Beautiful!

On a whim, and without any idea exactly where we were going (there was no internet connectivity at the campground... and we didn't stop at the tourist office), we took the Gondola ride across the Rhine. On the Köln side, you have the zoo; on the other side, you have a fantastic park with views of Köln along with sculptures, fountains, gardens and a playground. We spent a few hours enjoying the park with the kids, though managed to not take the small train ride around.

We left all too soon - partly we need to either bite the bullet and visit the tourists offices (which means we'd be admitting we're tourists...) and partly we need Internet connectivity to research the history of our destinations and what we should be seeing and doing. Was fun to go back to the Köln web page and see that of our own accord, we managed to see and experience several of the city's historic buildings, just by virtue of being tourists on the loose, biking around the city.

On a whim, we stopped by a wine "museum" and shop on the outskirts of town. They actually grow grapes on the roof of the building! Sophia and Megan were given a handful of wine grapes (we didn't hear a peep out of them while they were enjoying the treat) and I was directed to a couple of German wines to try out... my choices:

• Weingut August Perll - Mittelrhein 2006er Bopparder Hamm Fässerlay Reisling Spätlese trocken
• Knipser Cuvee Gaudenx Pfalz from 2003
• Badischer Federweißer - a mini science experiment in the RV - Federweißer is new wine. It's a bottle of white wine that was brewed the day prior to my purchasing it. It's capped, but not tightly as it's just beginning to ferment. A day after, it is very sweet and about 1% alcohol - tasted almost like fresh apple cider. As you allow it to ferment, the alcohol level increases and the sugar level decreases. I'll try it again tomorrow (21.Sept - 4 days after being bottled).

And finally, at MediaMarkt, we were able to purchase a USB device that allows us to watch European TV on our laptops. It's fun to have TV back - if only to be able to stay a little in touch with CNN News. In Köln we had a variety of channels (CNN the only English channel) and good reception. Will see how it fares in the smaller suburbs we visit.

On to the next location - somewhere enroute to München. If the weather holds out, a visit to Koblenz enroute.

Ciao for now.

Schloß Moyland -

About 12 kilometers away from our spot in Kleve, one finds Schloß (Castle) Moyland. They allow one-night free parking for motorhomes. After my whining that we had been in Germany close to a month and had not yet stopped at a castle, it was a required side-trip. We hadn't done any research on the castle and were expecting a tour of a castle... instead, we found a marvelous art exhibit (several actually). We wound up spending about four hours touring the art exhibit inside the castle – it was amazing! Surprisingly, the kids were pretty patient throughout the visit – though Dan and I could easily have spent another full day enjoying the exhibits.

The theme during our exhibit was "Im Auge des Klangs I - The Eye of Sound I" and to summarize from the brochure, "The exhibit showcases 12 international positions of contemporary sound and light art."

I was surprised at the sheer amount of artwork on display -we're talking full walls covered in artist's work, from the basement, to the top of the towers - in addition to the light and sound exhibitions. It was overwhelming and fantastic all at the same time. Makes me wish I had studied art history.

The light and sound artists included: Maria de Alvear, Henning Chistiansen, Ronald Kuiila, Erwin Stache, Marianne Greve, Tony Oursler, Stefan Scneider, Ralf Schreiber, Christina Kubisch, Andreas Oldorp, Alvin Curran, Benoit Maubrey and Miki Yui. The primary artist on display was Joseph Beuys, who, according to the museum's brochure, "...redefined the concept of sculpture, opened it into acoustic and non-materialised spheres and related it to all the human senses."

The kids loved the sound and light exibits. One was an array of drawers laid out on the floor, each with piano wire stretched across and a needle resting against the piano wire. Everything was wired up to a central point and made the most haunting of noises, seeming to respond to sound and/or vibrations of the room.

Living Particles by Ralf Schreiber was ... "a light sledge moves over solar controlled modules and stimulates an almost silent sound of a chaotic nature." In my words: A set of tracks conveyed a box left to right in the room. Between the tracks were photo cell sensors and as the box passed over them, the light inside the box activated the sensors which resulted in varying sounds as the box moved along the tracks. Very cool. Sophia couldn’t resist the urge to lay on the floor and watch under the box!

The only exhibit we didn’t get to appreciate fully was two swings, suspended from the ceiling with violin bows sitting on them I think this was the Saitenschaukeln by Erwin Stache). Guests are invited to sit on the swings and stroke the support wires with the bows… sadly, I just didn’t understand the signs well enough to be certain of what to do. Not used to having exhibits that invite you to interact.

Outside were huge gardens on either side of the castle, complete with sculptures which were very beautiful and fun to explore. The gardens contained a variety of historical plants as well as gifted plants.

The castle was in ruins after WWII and sat until the 1990’s. The building was renovated and opened as an art museum in 1997, and as you can see in the picture above, one tower is still being renovated. Well worth the visit - could have used an extra day.

Happy Birthday Kid!

Megan’s 6th birthday! We kicked off the day with one of her favorite breakfasts, french toast. Then headed out for the long walk to Kleve Zoo, about 2km from our campground. Enroute we were able to view the Roman Ampitheater, the center gardens and old land house.

It is a fairly small zoo – mostly German and Hungarian farming animals, but they also had 3 seals, a mini-panda, camels, and even a wallaby. Lots of goats – which were very interested in the boxes of food the girls had and made no apologies for head butting each other out of the way to get a tasty morsel.

We ended the day with cake before dinner at a traditional sidewalk café. The wind picked up just as we tried to light candles on Megan's piece of cake - but with cupped hands, we managed to keep a few lit for her to blow out. We seemed to be the main attraction for the other guests that day. I was surprised no one stopped and offered to take a picture of the family – people just kind of gawked. And we were being quiet, I promise. This is the first time I can remember Megan turning down sweets- she almost finished her cake and hot chocolate but finally had to admit it got the best of her and she couldn't eat anymore!

Kleve, Germany - 51.79167°N 6.14222°E

We've spent the last several days in Kleve, Germany, enjoying this beautiful town and its Swan Tower. Lots to do here and the weather has mostly cooperated, though autumn is fast approaching. There's one bookstore in town with a small English selection. We've been devouring books like crazy!

We are staying at a very popular motorhome spot that is basically at the end of a parking lot. It's quiet and free - who can beat that? There are 18 power hookups for 40+ spots - we felt fortunate to secure a spot on the power pole on our 2nd day! By the weekend, motorhome traffic was overflowing into the parking lot - there were probably an additional 12 vehicles parked outside the designated camping area.

The Swan Tower (see above) is the tallest building in town and can be seen from virtually every spot we've visited. The short version of the story - The Swan Tower and the town of Nijmegen were left to a young woman by her father. She had to defend the towns and one day, a swan arrived, pulling a boat which carried a young man. They agreed to marry under the condition that she must never ask his name. After having 3 sons and winning many battles, curiosity got the best of her and she asked him to reveal his family heritage for the sake of the children. He vanished, never to be seen again. The tower is still protected by a swan at the top and another in the central courtyard. Encyclopedic references point to Richard Wagner's opera Lohengrin as having popularized the tale.

During the course of its history, the Swan Tower has been used as a prison and today, is where the court offices reside. Much of the tower was rebuilt after WWII though there is an excavated section of one of the original turrets that can be viewed. We climbed to the top of the tower and enjoyed the views - visitors aren't allowed on the exterior. Each floor of the tower held exhibits, probably the favorite of the girl's was the wooly mammoth exhibit, followed by the rock and stone exhibits.

On another outing, we visited the B.C. Koekkoek-Haus Museum which in addition to Koekkoek's work (and that of his family, along with some personal belongings from the house) was running a Willy Maywald exhibit. Megan and Sophia had flowers in their hand (it's an ongoing game with every outing, to pick flowers). One of the curators offered the girls a free postcard, to which, Sophia offered a flower in return. The woman was quite taken aback - she had never received a gift of flowers from a child in the museum before!

Of Maywald's work (Gelatin Silver Print), I was caught a little off guard at the contrast of subject matter. The first room I viewed was modern photography of models in designer clothing from the early 50's. Next, a hallway containing photos from Kleve - including a few pre-war, post-war and rebuilding ('40's). Another room was dedicated to profiling famous artists, including Picasso. The contrast between documenting the destruction of war and modern day fashion struck me in a way I can't concisely explain.

There's a culture of doting on the kids here with little gifts. Most folks we've talked to have offered a little something for the girls, whether it's candy or colored pencils. At the "Trödel Markt" (think flea market), a vendor gave both girls items from their booth and wouldn't accept payment - of course, it was the very end of the day and everyone was getting ready to go home. One woman at the parking spot called us over to show us her "parakeets" - they were pods from a tree in the area. She returned a few hours later with two, just for the girls to enjoy. See picture - they feel kind of creepy, but if you draw eyes on them, the look just like little birds, sipping water. The girls and I met another woman with her German Shephard on the path near our camping spot. She recommended we park in a nearby camping ground - but we chose to stay where we were - just moved a few spots. She tracked us down two days later and then visited again a third time with colored pencils for the girls and home baked treats for tea! It was a very sweet gesture and made us feel welcomed.

Dorsten - 51.66611°N 6.96833°E

(Acutally posting on 8/20 - but back dating to keep the timeline).

Found a really inexpensive spot to camp in Dorsten, Germany which offered easy access to the town center for only 3 Euro per night. Still no consistent Internet (the posts are a little backwards - I made a long post on the 18th and explained the situation).

The campground was nearly full when we first arrived and continued to fill up by about 4pm each day. We were either the eyesore or the wonder of the day for folks we're camping with. Unlike the last camping spot, folks largely ignored us. This seems to be more of a transitional stop with very high turnover each day. Met several folks from The Netherlands - some of whom had done the reverse of our trip, and one of whome is headed to the States at the end of September for their 3rd trip. We were happy to see a 30' Winnebago arrive at this spot. The couple was kind enough to refer us to the shop where we could obtain the power conversion.

To the left, you see one of the many churches in Dorsten. Very beautiful. Lots of competing bells at each quarter hour, not to mention the call for worship. Regretfully, I didn't write down the name of each church - and we only briefly stepped inside this particular one.

To the right, a fountain documenting a visit by Johann Wolfgang van Goethe - who visited Dorsten on Dec. 6, 1792, returning from France.

Saturday and Sunday brought the "Canal fest" along with a fantastic outdoor market on Saturay. Later that night were the competing parties - we had music coming from the ice-hockey rink near the campground along with music coming from across the canal until around 1am. All English music from the 80's - Stix, Eagles... you get the picture.

Picture of Megan and Sophia watching the Koi in one of the town's ponds - along with a nice street-scape.

Probably the most important outings of this stay were:

1) Satuday at the Olymp Kids Park - an huge indoor playground for kids and

2) Sunday at Atlantis - 3 hours of swimming and waterslides. When's the last time you went down a water slide? You should try it - it'll bring a smile to your face.

Reunion Weekend

Based on information from a friend of mine, we made a bee-line for Lübbecke for the bier brunnen fest on 11.Aug. What I didn't anticipate is that he had also been in contact with my host family and made arrangements for us to stay with them! Our limited access to email meant I missed about 4 emails with the details, so it was to our surprise on Friday, to learn that we should NOT camp at Osnabrück, but should proceed directly to Lübbecke.

It was my host-father's 70th birthday celebration and the entire family was in town. We were invited to join them - with us staying in the house, in my old room (thanks, Susanne!).


My navigation skills led us out on some tiny country roads. Dan's well versed (again) at driving in awkward situations. We arrived in one piece and the family had added the American flag to the flag pole out front to welcome us. By the end of the weekend, they simply hung the "UNO" flag - because there were so many different nationalities staying for the festivities.





We enjoyed a very warm welcome and it made quite the impression on Dan and the girls. Lots of excellent food and friends by which to enjoy our first week in Germany.







Flags outside the house - thank you for the warm welcome!





Megan's view of the bierbrunnen fest in Lübbecke. 3Euro for two drinks and you keep the awesome stein! Nice!