A Day in the Snow

We made the most of the endless winter in Munich, and made our way to the English Garden – where the newfound sun brought everyone out of the woodwork. Sophia practiced her famous snow angel, and of course Alexandra wants to do anything her big sister does. She has the feed down, but we need to work on her wing motion. Overall, the day was beautiful, and the kids had a blast in the fresh air and the white scenery around the English Garden Lake House.

A Day in the Munich Snow

With nearly 3 weeks of straight snowfall, and sub-freezing temperatures; the sun finally came out and we decided to explore the snow-covered city. The girls loved their new white city, where every open field became a new playground. Moya & Sophia made joint snow angels, while Alexandra was more interested in eating the snow. Most of the photos are taken in the Konigsplatz area.

Skating on the canal

We were in the midst of a deep freeze last week, with a couple inches of snow every night.  Mind you, Munich is flat, with snowplows for both the streets & sidewalks, so we weren’t really affected by the snow at all.

[Except it takes sooooo long to get the girls dressed for school, clean the car off, warm everyone up.   I have never been much of a morning person, but I am really beginning to hate the 7-9am hours.  Just too much stress for that early in the morning…]

However, we were able to take advantage of the low temps (a high of –5 on Thursday) to have some fun on the canal in front of Nymphenburg Palace. Alexandra managed to talk us into letting her out of her stroller & being able to run on the ice. Sophia just had a great time skating around in circles, and pulling our friend Dominic who was visiting from Italy. She & Alexandra are so funny together Alexandra is just doing everything she can to keep up with Sophia.  This does not bode well for us in the future… And yes, all Alexandra wanted to do was eat the ice shavings. So we left for lunch, and passed by all of the Germans playing a game on the ice, a mixture of shuffleboard & curling.  I don’t understand it, but with all of the ice cleared it looked like there was quite the serious tournament going on.

Back to School

We felt so lucky, we were able to drive out of Paris ahead of the snow on Wednesday, and thru the swirls in the Alsace and Black Forest, all the way back to Munich.  Thursday, we woke up to snowy skies, and snowy fields by the school.  The cool thing is the kids can bring their sleds (sledges) to school, and play all through recess and then in the 30 min after school that it is still light out.

Sophia’s Ski Class

Sophia had an amazing group to ski with this week.  The ages ranged from 5 to 13, but the instructor was fantastic with them, and had them all doing exercises & drills down the runs.  Sophia learned so much, and by the end of the week was making parallel turns, when she remembered! 

Troy & I were able to ski a bit with the class & ride up the lift with Sophia, but we didn’t feel like we could do the whole day – she used us as a bit of a crutch when we were around, and skied much better when she didn’t know we were watching.

You can see the fog in the Valley below us – it was really starting to warm up!

The great lunch hut – Kasespaetzel (kind of like Mac & Cheese) is so good, as was the beer.

Sophia & her group were there as well.  Fast & Hot, and the kids all got to warm up for a bit before more skiing!!

Z Update - Spring?

(Sophia trying to keep her grip on a squirmy Alexandra)

Sorry for the silence the past couple weeks, its been a bit crazy! Troy has been on a travel spree, and at the same time Alexandra has been going thru a huge growth spurt!!

The past couple of days has been such a relief for all of us. Alexandra's smile is back, her giggle (which went on for a good 30 min today) is back, and her sleep habits have been returned to their normal 7:30-7:45 wake up. (side note - I don't do very well when both girls are up at 6. There is just something about the time - 6AM! It wasn't bad when I could sleep thru the night, but someone is up in the middle of the night. Either Sophia walks into our room, or Alexandra starts crying & given the teething issue we don't really feel like waking up all of our neighbors...)

Anyway, the time change that happened this past weekend is really wonderful for us - the rooms stay darker later & Troy & I may even have a bit of a lie in this weekend.

But spring is fleeting in Munich. This past week we had a Saturday morning that had amazing sunshine and beautiful sky, only to degrade into a cold, damp, rainy day. Four days before that we had snow. Not just snow falling, but snow piling up! Inches on the grass outside our apartment, and terrible visibility.

Hopefully April brings extended periods of sun, and a lot more travel!

Spring?

Has it finally come to Munich? We had our first day of the year last weekend when we didn't have to wear a hat for a walk (even though there was still snow on the ground!)

We drove out to Starnberg (one of the lakes around Munich), found a golf course to walk on, and a great Gasthaus to have an outside meal at, and just enjoyed the changing of the (winter) guard.

There was still some snow on the ground. Crazy, because it was at least 50, and felt more like 60 in the sun with no wind... (we were able to eat lunch in our shirt sleeves!)

Sophia's first Snowball

Who rolls a snowball in baseball straight lines?

Monday morning we woke up to snow. Not a lot, but enough so that in my Seattle brain I thought, "Its a snow day from school". But just for a second. I think it would take a blizzard for a week to halt the lives of people here in Munich. People were still riding bikes all over the city, while it was snowing. (Better than rain I guess).

Anyway, after school Sophia & I went to a big grassy area behind the Town Hall in central Munich to make snow angels. Unfortunately most of the snow had melted, except for the leftovers of snowmen people had made on the grass. Needless to say, Sophia had a blast! We were throwing snowballs for dogs to chase, snowballs at each other, snowballs up in the air just to see them crash to the ground and wonder where they went.

And in her Paris mind, the fact that we were on the grass, running on the grass, playing on the grass, was just as exciting as the snow.