Ludwigsburg Palace

Saturday's excursion was to Ludwigsburg! The flowers were absolutely amazing and the whole scene when you walk to the palace was beautiful! We saw the gardens in the front then walked to the side and walked through the Orangery (Naomi ran amuck in the Orangery), we looked at all the animal topiaries, and went into the aviary. The aviary had all sorts of beautiful birds; Flamingos, white stork-ish birds, baby ducks diving in the ponds, pheasants, tall black birds...etc. It was amazing! Then we saw the herb gardens with beautiful greenhouses. Then the Japanese gardens to see the bonsai's. After that we sat on a bench and ate lunch we brought and watched a bride and groom taking photos. There's a really pretty carousel that has been there since, well, I don't remember but a long time! We toured the palace and it was incredible! There were original silk curtains in the King's chamber that were all faded and tattered from age, so cool! Our stroller was suddenly very squeaky on this tour, or we just noticed it because it was really quiet :) We kept trying to creep slowly or make short bursts of speed to find the right way to stop the squeaking. Nothing worked so we just stayed at the back :) King Frederick was our favorite. He was almost 7 ft tall and almost 400 lbs!! He ate a goose and a duck for lunch, by himself!

After the interior tour we headed outside to the Fairytale Gardens and were blown away by it! We were not expected a mini Disneyland and kept running to the next spot. They had a tower where Rapunzel lived. If you stood at the bottom and yelled (in German), "Rapunzel, Rapunzel let down your long hair!"  A long rope of yellow hair with a red bow would lower down! How fun! Naomi thinks Rapunzel really lived there. There was a donkey that spit out an edible chocolate coin at you when you paid him 20 cents. There was a giant king that would rise out of a giant castle when you knocked on the door. There were two frog princes on a pond in the middle of a hedge maze! They would spit water at you when you crossed the pond. There were slides and goats, a train ride, a boat ride that took us through the mouth of the whale from Pinocchio, animated fairytale stories, a pond with a chair that would lift up when you sat in it and water would rise up around you and lily pads would turn over into flowers!! The flowers were blooming and smelling wonderful and the cool breeze blowing made the whole scene so magical!

We finished up the gardens and grabbed some delicious Pad Thai take-out and headed home. Our feet hurt but we had a fantastic day!




 

             

We discovered Fiona's bottom left tooth poking through as we were sitting on a bench. No wonder she's been a little cranky lately :)

Naomi is jumping like a kangaroo in between the chicken and pig topiary's. Behind her is a twig-maze that wound around to a little sitting spot. Fun little treasures like this were all over! Chris and the girls in the aviary.

            

              

               

                 

Rapunzel's hair is hanging down next to the tower. This train was so fun! It was interesting though because there were no sides or seatbelts on the train and kids were riding by themselves, they didn't make them have an adult. Also, the track ran through the park without any guards or gates over the railroad. Also, kids were running next to the train as it went through. We thought it was so interesting because in the States there would have been more safety precautions :)

                 

                

                

Rapunzel's tower from the other side of the garden. You can barely see the red from her bow hanging down next to the tower. Chris and Fiona at Favorite Place looking back at Ludwigsburg.

Naomi is such a great big sister!

Ritter Sport Chocolate Factory Museum

After work on Friday we headed to the Ritter Sport Chocolate Factory Museum. It was so hot this day! We thought we'd melt on the short walk to the museum. Germany weather is crazy, freezing one day and scorching the very next! Anyway, we made it and read all about the process of making the delicious Ritter Sport chocolates that we've become addicted too. We watched a short video in German and then headed to the shop and loaded up on wholesale chocolates!! Yum! They even sale some random, tester flavors so it was fun to try them. Naomi kept thinking we were going to get cheese because she's used to going to the Tillamook Cheese factory. Even though we'd explained to her that there was only delicious chocolate here she'd forget and whisper, "Dad, where is the cheese?" Haahaa! You don't actually get to see the process of the chocolate being made (I thought there'd be a chocolate fountain for some reason) but it was fun to see the history of it all.

         

         

After the museum we walked around the town and saw this May Pole! So cool! Naomi chose a book out of a "Take One, Leave One" library. It's in German but she thinks I can read German so I "read" it to her :)

       

The craziest part of the trip happened on the return trip home. Chris was getting out of the bus with Naomi in the stroller and the front wheels slipped under the bus right as the driver lowered the bus for passengers to get out. The tires were pinched and no tugging or pulling would get them out. The bus couldn't lift up because the doors were open and the doors couldn't close because the stroller was in the way... The driver was so flustered and we just kept smiling because it was just so nuts! All the passengers kept looking and trying to help. The driver finally pulled forward a little and it turned the wheels and the stroller was free! He was so concerned that we were alright and that the stroller was undamaged. We said all was fine and went on with our journey. The stroller really was unscathed, we thought the wheels would be dented, but nope!

Naomi's walk and Park Adventure

One afternoon we took a walk to get out and explore the area. Frau Bettina had told us about some horses nearby and strawberry you-pick farm. I gave Naomi my phone to take pictures of anything fun she saw and she took that challenge VERY seriously. She kept taking pictures to send to Grammie to help her be happy. She wanted to take pictures of any and all flowers to send to Grammie :) We found the strawberry field to pick strawberries then kept walking to the very, very end of the lane and didn't see any horses. We turned back for home and went on a different road paralleling the road we came out on and came upon the horses just as we were almost home :) We could've seen the horses hours ago and didn't know it! Fiona was getting pretty cranky and didn't want to be in the stroller so I held her and pushed Naomi home in the stroller. What a work-out! Noami's pictures are so fun to look at!

             

             

                        

                 
                       
                     

We met Chris one afternoon after work with a picnic dinner and some pastries. There's a park near Chris' work that is awesome and so we played in the sunshine and then ate dinner in the grass. It was very nice! The park is really different and neat. The structures are ingeniously build and there's little houses to go inside, all made of wood. There's a big spiderweb rope course that Naomi loved and a climbing wall that she couldn't get enough of. The girl gets scared on a teeter-totter but can do a 7 ft rock wall by herself! Fiona ate grass and enjoyed a short nap in the stroller. We grabbed some more pastries for the bus ride home, we can't get enough of the almond-gooey-goodness pastry!

                  

          

         

Chris is loving his rotation! His attending, Dr. Bartee is very nice and helpful and so is Dr. Bingham. He gets to see about 6-7 patients, more or less depending on the day. He gets to bounce ideas off the dr.'s and learn first hand with every case, which he loves! He has seen some interesting cases too.