Sunday at the Ballpark

Who would have known that Regensburg has a great baseball stadium? Turns out we knew one of the players… On the first warm & sunny day of the year, we spent the afternoon hanging out at the ballpark, watching Brehan play 3rd base on his 33rd birthday… and having fun with our girls…  I couldn’t find the mariners’ shirts for the girls, and myself, so we wore our Roots “USA” shirts from the Olympics, and our Mariners’ hats.  Troy passed off the hat, and everyone knew that we were the loud Americans! (Alexandra is still drooling!!) Sophia stole everyone’s baseball caps, Alexandra was able to swing with the big toy…  and we had a couple more family photos taken, and silliness with the birthday boy… What better way to start spring in Munich than with a game that my brother is playing.  In all the years we have been in Europe, we have only seen his home field, and never were able to enjoy his play.  There is almost nothing as good as drinking a cold beer in a stadium, watching Brehan, and I never had to yell at the Umps once!…

Schloss Blutenburg

We are trying to visit all of the castles in the area just around Munich, and today we went to Schloss Blutenburg.  Currently it is  the International Children’s Library, but it was closed the day we were there.  We were able to walk into the close, where there was the remains of the summer beer garden, and then we walked thru the parkland and around the lake.  

It was a little anti-climatic, but the girls had fun – and no one got wet!

Deutschland Cup

This weekend the Hockey teams from the US, Germany, Slovakia (I think) and Switzerland played in a tournament here in Munich.  Troy & I went to the Friday night match up between Germany & the US with some friends from Troy’s office & from Sophia’s school.  We thought it might be the same team we saw play at the World Championships in Switzerland in May (they were struggling), but they did manage to win, in an Overtime – shoot out 3-2.

We were the only people we could see that brought our US flags, and we even made it up on the big screen.  The Germans sitting around us were very entertained by us, and everyone stayed thru the awarding of MVP & playing of the US national anthem at the end of the match. 

Usually we aren’t much for flag waving when we are the foreigners, but it was great fun!

Of course Troy was also wearing his Slovakia team jersey, so we got lots of crazy looks…

Burghausen – The castle

We spent a very hot Sunday afternoon at the medieval castle of Burghausen, the longest castle in Europe with walls over 1 km long!  There were 6 different courtyards in the palace, and we could see the development of the castle thru the years, but mostly it was just hot.  We thought that on a hill overlooking the amazing old town we would get a bit of a breeze, but there was nothing.

 

Sophia ended up in the stroller, while Alexandra got a ride with Troy.  Both girls fell asleep in the car on the way home…

Thru the courtyards there were chapels, private gardens, a cafe, and an amazing view to a swimming lake down below (from now on we bring our bathing suits for day trips).

Neuschwanstein - with a hike

The last day is always so sad, so we decided to pull Sophia out of school early & drive down to the inspiration for Sleeping Beauty’s castle.

Unfortunately, the bus to the top of the hill was not running, and the line for the carriages was so long that we decided (all of us!) to make the hike up to the top. Pushing the stroller, taking a few rest stops, and at times carrying Sophia, we all made it up in 45 min, the recommended time! Unfortunately, for the visitors to the castle, the interior is not very exciting. Only one floor was finished before Mad King Ludwig’s death, and the castle was never completely furnished. We didn’t walk into the castle, but explored the courtyards, and then Moya & Papa walked over to Marian’s Bridge which overlooks the castle & the valley,

(Doesn't it look like a Hollywood backdrop?)while Nana took the girls down to the restaurant for some much needed ice cream. And then we managed to secure a carriage on the way down!

Regensburg Christmas Market

Pre & post cleaning of the exterior of the Cathedral entrance.

We drove up to Regensburg on Sunday for the first weekend of Advent opening of the Christmas markets all over Germany. Kind of fun to be doing some kind of shopping on a Sunday, and not related to apartment anything at all!

It was a very quaint market, just once around the small parish church in the middle of town, but cute & great wooden toys. Also a couple of carousels that Sophia just had to ride, but they go really REALLY fast here (all the vehicles are fast in Germany) so she settled for riding the elephant just once. After that it was to a coffee bar/cafe to warm up for lunch & back to Munich for a lazy evening at home.

There also is a "romantic" christmas market near the palace (the one I remember watching dozens of times on Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous on all of those Friday night babysitting nights). But romance & cold, hungry 3 year olds don't do well together.

Neuschwanstein - The King's Castles

On a cold Sunday afternoon, we headed for the hills - the alps to be exact. We teamed up with one of Troy's co-workers and their two kids (Sophia seen here with Jackson) to show the kids the inspiration to the Sleeping Beauty castle. Of course, anything to do with princesses and castles, Sophia loves. I'm surprised she didn't ask to wear her Cinderella costume there. We went into the smaller of the two castles, but Sophia was more interested in chasing Jackson around than seeing the building or its surroundings. We took the 45 minute walk up to Neuschwanstein castle, which took about 2 hours with two three year olds (lots of distractions along the way - like sticks and moving water). Next time we'll take the horse carriage and get to the top.