Biscuits, Bergs and Burgs

Last term was half term, and for this post I will resort to the standard chronological method of writing (but will endeavour to include photos to make it interesting) M still had Kindergarten, but I had to look after L all day.

Monday was a beautiful sunny day. All 3 of us cycled to Kindergarten together, and we met another parent with stroppy child in tow saying 'see L had to get to get up early to come to Kindergarten too' I'm glad L still enjoys his brief visits to K'garten! Mid morning, L and I cycled to the playground in the neighbouring town. By the time we arrived it was 11am, but to my surprise there were no other kids there, clearly playgrounds are an afternoon activity! This meant I had to play with L, which almost ended in disaster on the giant tyre swing. This installation is clearly designed to appease the town's teenagers as even I find it tricky to get on. It is a giant pole on which a contraption of 4 tyres at the end of poles is balanced. L had persuaded me to get on one of the tyres and despite me holding my feet clear of the middle pole, the tyre somehow managed to swing round such that my foot got squished between the tyre and the middle pole, ouch! Nothing broken, but it left me with a wounded foot and pride. Back in Altstaedten, M abgeholt and lunch gegessen we embarked on our 2nd playground trip, this time on scooters (or in my case foot) and to the local one. Whoever invented the concept of playgrounds is a genius!

Tuesday it rained, ideal weather for learning the Rubik's cube. L stuck with it and several hours later had one completed Rubik's cube. It was carefully hidden out of reach of M, but managed to get muddled when L was showing it off to his uncle, so naturally we had to start all over again! Much quicker 2nd time round. No normal 7yo is going to be occupied by a rubik's cube for an entire day, so we did also bake and decorate biscuits. Through these encountered an interesting culture clash, as apparently such treats here are normally solely for Christmas.

Mmmmm - Plaetzchen

 The exciting activity for Wednesday was a trip to the bank! Today was world saving day (apparently) so the kids took their piggy bank to the real bank and the collected monies was put into their bank account. To make it more child-friendly, they got to pick a free toy. M chose playdough (standard) and L chose the very boring looking bike light. L was so excited about his new toy and thought it would have costed 'at least 60-70 Euros, because LEDs are expensive you know!' With bubble wrap fully popped, and light returned to box for safety, a happy afternoon was spent playing with the playdough.

The exciting activity for Thursday was going to be swimming, but unfortunately L came down with a fever. So instead the exciting activity for the day was a preemptive trip to the doctors with Oma (I picked up M instead). A preemptive trip was required because...

Friday was Feiertag! (Bank holiday - ergo doctors shut) After weekend breakfast, I was picked up by a lovely couple from church punctually at 9 for a drive through the mountains to the weekend away. Unfortunately car rides have the ability to still send me promptly to sleep, so I missed most of it, but each time I opened my eyes the scenery was beautiful. We were staying in the youth hostel in Garmisch-Partenkirchen which is at the foot of the tallest mountain in Germany (Zugspitze-2962m) It's a bit of an expedition to climb such a mountain so I didn't, but instead we had the standard afternoon 2-hr walk. The weekend away was good and, despite being only 20 (mostly middle-aged) people, was remarkably similar to 'The Great Escapes' and 'Houseparty'. The timetable revolved around various food-breaks, and included lots of talks and the afternoon free-time during which practically everyone (bar those on crutches) went on a Wanderung. I understood something from the talks, but have to admit I skipped the extra discussion time as my brain has a finite capacity to understand theological discussions auf deutsch! It was also nice to have a bit of peace and quiet.

Wenderfels, a ruined castle overlooking Garmisch-Partenkirchen

I returned to an empty house, the family not returning for a couple of hours. When they returned (they had bought a new cupboard) L proudly told me he had gekotzt, in such a happy tone that it took me a while to twig that he was telling me he had thrown up! Unfortunately the illness from Thursday was not yet cured and has so far spent this Monday and Tuesday at home. Most of the time you couldn't tell he was ill, but today he ate a yogurt and promptly threw up, so he's not faking! He also missed ice-skating today (that's a school sport for 7yos, jealous!) so wasn't too happy. Hopefully tomorrow he will awake ohne temperature and peaceful mornings shall be mine once again. However M was today complaining of Bauchweh so I'm not going to count on that....

And your prize for reaching the end http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cv9mQIBDx3I Bit different from a song this time, but pretty epic