A Little Germany in the US

We had such a fun time visiting our friends in Georgia. We all drove to the town of Helen, GA, which is a town in the mountains that is completely German-themed. I can get the beer made in the town I lived in in Germany and food that tastes like I closed my eyes and wound up in Frankfurt. Seriously, we could break our stomachs eating the food is so good. 

We've been friends with the parents since before any of the kids were born so they've known each other their whole lives and it's always such a good time getting together with them.

This trip we also did something new...river tubing! It was a great, winding trip down the river with some more wet parts at times.

To thank them for the idea, I came up with this little interactive card with a lady tubing down a river!

Fiber Souvenirs!

When you have serious luggage constraints you can't get too crazy with fiber purchases while you're traveling...but I did manage to bring home some fun yarn!

When we were visiting Muenster I came across a great little yarn shop in the main shopping area downtown. I found the needles I needed quickly and there were baskets of sock yarn ripe for the picking! I picked the two that stood out from the rest and was on my way feeling good that I didn't have everyone waiting too long for me!

During our layover in Iceland I was in for a surprise...yarn at the airport! It was so squishy and beautiful! We hardly had enough time to use the rest room and make it to our next gate, but we stopped at the gift shop when I saw piles of yarn and handknits hanging up...I would have loved a sweater kit, but they didn't have any and I didn't have enough time to figure out how much yarn to buy so like a complete fiber-obsessed maniac I grabbed a cute little hat kit! It has the yarn for the hat and a pattern and I think it will definitely whet my appetite for more Icelandic knitting!

Have you ever seen yarn in an airport to buy?

Our Last German Evening

Once we were back in Germany we only had one evening left before it was time to leave. We were sad when we found out my host mother had gone back to the hospital while we had been away, and had a lot of packing to do, but still were able to barbecue with my host father and his sister that evening.

Little Man was so happy to be able to play with his new pal Paulie again! Here they are playing in the garden below.

My host father's law practice is the ground floor of the building and his sister lives in the apartment above. The apartment has a beautiful terrace that overlooks the city square and the historical church.

I couldn't leave Warstein without having one last Warsteiner beer with my dinner!

The brats were from Lora's butcher shop..they make them right there with their own recipes.

The morning we left we were up early! My host father made breakfast for us one last time and then we were on the road for Frankfurt.

Our flight flew from Frankfurt back to Iceland and during our flight we passed over Greenland!

Muenster Germany

Just an hour away from my host parents is the city of Muenster, where my host sisters live with their families. We stayed with my host sister Eva and visited with my other host sister Anne who took us on a walking tour of the city. We were also lucky in that the citywide yearlong Sculpture Project was open for us to see. We weren't able to see all of the exhibits, but what we did see made a big impression!

Little Man had a great time hanging out with Eva's daughter again. They rode around, splashed around in water in the garden and whittled wood. 

At Anna's house we had an amazing dinner on the balcony, and even enjoyed watching a blimp and hot air balloons!

If you get down at the right view it looks like these globes are floating on the lake!

We placed the Frankenstein sticker for my brother as a part of the art installation project he's working on....I even got his name in the shot!

When I realized my project bag was lost I kept my eyes open for a local yarn shop and look what I found! It took me less than 10 minutes to find new sock needles and some fun self-striping yarn. The ladies were so helpful and sweet! I would have loved to look around some more but we had a lot more of the city to see!

We walked by St Lamberti's church and talked to Little Man a bit about the history of it.

While walking we came across this part of Sculpture Project that had African art suspended in the trees above.

Here's my favorite spot from the project. To see the best view of what's written in the antennae, my host sister and I laid down in the grass and looked up. I read the words in German, and translated them out loud to her...in English, the words say:

My Dear One! When you are lying in the grass, with your head thrown back, there is no one around you, and only the sound of the wind can be heard and you look up into the open sky – there, up above, is the blue sky and the clouds floating by – perhaps this is the very best thing that you have ever done or seen in your life.

In German it says:

Mein Lieber! Du liegst im Gras, den Kopf im Nacken, um dich herum keine Menschenseele, du hörst nur den Wind und schaust hinauf in den offenen Himmel – in das Blau dort oben, wo die Wolken ziehen - das ist vielleicht das Schönste, was du im Leben getan und gesehen hast.

Little Man and Hubby took a walking break on the lake in a pedalboat.

It was burning hot for Germany while we were walking around so after miles of walking I introduced Little Man and Hubby to a German creation...spaghetti ice cream! It's vanilla ice cream made to look at spaghetti and topped with a "sauce" made of strawberries...it was a hit with Little Man!

While we were sitting eating our frozen treats a little boy at the table next to ours dropped the ice cream right off his cone. When I looked down at it melting on the ground I thought it just looked like sadness. When his parents got him a new scoop it was in a cup :)

 We had such a great, jam-packed time in Muenster, and two days later we were on the road again!

Beginning of Our 2017 Germany Trip

After our fun family visit in PA we drove to the airport in Baltimore. We had dinner at the airport before our evening flight to first Iceland and then Frankfurt.

We flew on WOW Air for the first time and made sure to load our iPads with movies and books for the flight since the plane wouldn't have in-flight entertainment. We also packed snacks and ate at the airports since the food offerings are small and not included. Little Man had no problem occupying himself, and was excited to fly again.

Everything went smoothly until we hit issues with our rental car. First they did not have the car we had reserved. We wound up with an Opel station wagon and as we were about 45 minutes away we had to call and tell them we needed to switch cars because the air conditioning didn't work. We turned around and were 10 minutes away from the airport when we were hit by a truck. Then we had to wait for the police, drive and deal with the paperwork for the car (the rental office wanted us to pay for the totaled car).

Above is the first rental car and below is the truck that hit us.

After the car debacle it took us HOURS to get to my host family's house (we ended up in rush hour traffic), so we didn't get there until much later than we had planned. We were able to sit and spend time with my host father and then eat a pizza dinner before going to bed. We slept until the next afternoon (eek!) and had brunch. We spent time with my host parents and then that evening we drove to the Market Square and had dinner with my host father's sister. We grilled out on the balcony overlooking the square and it was so delicious (Lora owns a butcher shop so she REALLY knows her way around meat). Little Man made fast friends with her dog Paulie, and we all had a great time talking and eating.

The next day we headed to the all weather pool, which was a stop Little Man had requested because he loved it so much last time.

We spent a few hours swimming inside and out and I also went to the sauna and relaxed a bit looking at the garden through a panoramic window...it was a great afternoon.

Later, my host father made a breaded pork chop meal with bleu cheese and preserves with a side of spaetzle...Little Man and Hubby were so impressed!

Little Man and I spent time exploring the backyard...

...he was especially excited to find sticks he could whittle with his new knife from my host father...

...and I walked around seeing what was the same and what had changed...

...there weren't many changes, even the shed that's used for socializing looked pretty much the same.

We also went to the grocery store.

And went walking in the village of Suttrop where my host parents live.

Little Man and Hubby loved the view of the town of Warstein below with the windmill and cows just a 10 minute walk from the house. This path is where they tried to teach me to ride a bike (unsuccessfully) many years ago...I showed Little Man how the path is bordered by prickly bushes.

When we stopped at an outdoor museum for mining we saw this great yarn bomb!

And then it was time for a real German treat...a meal of white asparagus (it was asparagus season, happily)...with boiled potatoes, ham and hollandaise sauce or melted butter. It's a favorite German meal of mine, and was devoured by Little Man and Hubby!

I still have so much to share about our trip!