Sea Shipment has arrived, Bonn, and Movie Park

Sorry it has been so long since I last posted.  I've had an entire household to unpack!  Our shipment arrived Wednesday, September 11th.  The rental furniture company was supposed to arrive to take their stuff at 8.  They arrived at 715.  Love German promptness!  Luckily we were mostly ready for them. 

They movers did take as much of the boxes and packaging back with them that we could get to while they were here.  They also said that they will come back to pick up the rest.  There is ALOT of packaging. 

 

As of right now we are 95% unpacked.  That does not include the boxes that aren't being unpacked, or the garage I guess.  Last area to be unpacked will be my scrapbooking/crafting room.  Can't wait!  The only minor problem was getting our mattress to the 3rd floor, they had to hoist it up out of the backyard thought the porch door!  (No, I didn't get a picture, I'm bitter.)

Last Friday night the kid's school had an Oktoberfest-themed Welcome Back Party.  They actually sold beer right at the school, right at the playground.  I still can't wrap my head around it.  But wouldn't mind taking this tradition back to the USA with us!


Ryan did finally get his cast off!  He is very happy and gave it a good, long scratch when the doctor took it off.  He is playing soccer for his school, ISD, and so far has had 2 games.  He is enjoying it very much.  Game 1 was in the rain.  I didn't enjoy that so much.

Last weekend we made a day trip to Bonn, Germany.  There they have the gummy bear factory store.  No one needs this much gummy candy, but we have it. 

Bonn is the birthplace of Beethoven. 

Also, we happened upon this recreation, right in the middle of a street, of a medieval city wall and gate. 

Today, we took the kids to Movie Park.  It was a very cool amusement part about 35 minutes north of us.  We would recommend to anyone visiting us with kids.  (Have we mentioned we want people to come visit?  We are already making plans!)  Think of Disneyland, but with SpongeBob and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  The kids and Mike rode EVERYTHING.  The weather wasn't beautiful, but we were fine with it because it kept the crowds away.  We rarely stood in line for anything. 

Yes, I was very excited for this pic.  Rafael counts as a celebrity in my book!

Ryan loved the stunt show!  Bank robbers blowing things up and being tossed off buildings???  Yes, please!

Never saw a ride like this one before, pretty cool.  They have a lot of similar rides to ones in America.

 

They did the Dora Log Flume like 4 times.  But can someone PLEASE explain to me how this is supposed

to be fun?  Do any of them look like they are having fun?  I'm not a ride person, I don't get it.

Last weekend we also went to see a potential baseball team for the kids.  Yes, Erin will have to go back to baseball and she is not happy about it.  But as long as she gets to hit a ball with a bat she is ok.  Ryan is pretty excited too.  I don't know if the neighbors all appreciate Ryan's love of baseball.  He loves pitching his wiffle balls to himself in the backyard, and occasionally they land next door!  No complaints so far though. 

Berg Eltz and Koblenz

August 30, 2013 - We are really getting more and more settled as the days go by.  Ryan made the 8U soccer team.  He loves it!  Erin tried out for and was selected for the Choir.  She is also in the middle of Basketball tryouts.  And will start Hip-Hop on Monday after Choir. 

We received out Air Shipment on Thursday morning.  They packed a lot of junk that we really don’t need, but we now have all of our clothing so that is good.  Our bikes however did not arrive.  The latest word is that they didn’t fit on the air shipment so were put on the sea shipment.  Let’s hope so!

Friday, Erin & Ryan were off school.  We headed two hours south to see Berg Eltz.  Never ones to take the normal way, we parked at a small hotel and hiked the 3,4 kilometers to the top of the mountains to see the castle.  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moselkern)

 

 

 

Erin and Ryan were not happy when we got to the top and someone mentioned something about the shuttle bus.  The walk was beautiful and not too steep, ok, maybe in a few places.  But we were prepared for it.  Ryan found a “lucky rock”, which he carried all the way to the top.  He said “with it, we make it, without it, we don’t”.  Well we did make it.  I can’t say if it was the rock or not. 

Construction on the castle began sometime before 1157 (yes that makes parts of it over 850 years old) The 33^rd generation of the same family currently owns it, but only visits for conferences a few times a year.  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eltz_Castle)

 

The walk back down was much faster than the way up, obviously. 

 

From there we decided to check out the town of Koblenz.  The drive there was BEAUTIFUL!  Just random castles all along the Rhine River.  Also, it was full of vineyards.  They seem to use every inch of available space, all up the sides of mountains.  I don’t know who is picking these grapes, but I’m glad it isn’t me!

 

Koblenz was a great town too.  We had dinner at this fabulous restaurant called Pizza Hut.  Have you heard of it?  I highly recommend!  (In 15 days we have eaten at McDonalds, Burger King, Pizza Hut, Subway and KFC)  Then the kids got ice cream (ok I did too) and we walked down to the river.  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koblenz)

 

 

Is that really an entire store that only sells White objects?  Yes it was.  Seems like you could really exhaust your inventory quickly.

 

Koblenz is located at the confluence of the Moselle and Rhine Rivers.  Where they meet creates a point of land with a large park and former military fortress.  The other side of the river rises steeply to high cliffs for lack of a better way to explains.  Sound familiar, Pittsburgh?  We thought so too.  Also, they have a Cable Car system, but it’s a little different than the Monongahela ones.  We’ll get back to that!

Anyway, we walked to the confluence to see a humongous statue of Wilhelm I. So impressive! Luckily I got this pic so you can understand the size.  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_I)

All this time, I was eyeing up the Cable Cars.  Ryan was all for it but Mike and Erin took some convincing.  In the end, I think they were both happy they did it.  All’s well that ends well.  I will admit, I was scared, but I had to be better than Mike and Erin, so I didn’t let it show.  Once we got to the top, we immediately got back on because if not, Mike and Erin were grabbing a cab!

After that let the kids spend some time in the fountains then headed home.  I can only imagine how many miles (or kilometers) we walked, but it was all well worth it!