July – Magsig Family visit

We were so very fortunate that Amy and her three boys were able to make the long journey to Germany to spend a little over 2 weeks visiting us.  We aligned their vacation to coincide with Clark and MJ’s last day of school.  So, right after I walked the two of them to school for their last day of 5^th and 2^nd grade, respectively, I hoped in the car to head to Frankfurt to pick-up 4 very weary but dear friends.  I have never seen 5 kids so happy to see each other, all of the weary jet lag dropped away as they dove into Lego’s, talking, trampolining, more talking and laughing!  After a few days of recovery we decided it was time to experience a bare-foot path (Barfußpfad) – mud, multiple textures to walk on, freezing water and lots more laughter.  During the walk I thought my feet were being tortured, but afterward, they felt like they had been massaged for an hour, it was GREAT! 

Next trip was off to Cologne (Köln) to see the cathedral, 1248, with the remains of the Three Wise Men.  Of course, when Amy and I read there was a chocolate museum, well, you know where we spent the rest of the day – learning about the making and eating of chocolate.  Everything was in German and English and were very fortunate to learn that for centuries people have known about the health benefits of chocolate.  This was our first night of staying in a youth hostile and while it was nice, it didn’t come close to the one we stayed at in Koblenz (down the Rhine River).  Wow!  The hostel was in the fortress at the intersection of the Mosel and Rhine Rivers.  Amy and I, with jackets and wine, spent the evening gazing at the scenery while the 5 kids explored the Ehrenbreitstein Fortress.  Much to the delight of the boys, they had barely explored ¼ of the Fortress as we started to really explore it the following day.  What I had thought would be a couple of hours, turned into all day!  It was spectacular.  Some type of a fortress has been at that site since 1000 BC.  The present fortress is Europe’s second largest preserved fortress, built between 1817 and 1828 in its present-day design.  Despite a few rain showers we had a great time. 

Our next city to explore was Heidelberg.  We walked all through the city, saw the University, practiced jumping off a log in a synchronized manner (was a total failure but tons of fun), got caught in a little rain storm at a play ground, and then explored the castle.  Thought we were going to do so much more, but the castle captured the imaginations of the kids and then our rumbling tummy’s decided we needed to dine at the castle restaurant.  Really, how often does one get to dine at a castle? 

Off to Trier, this time with Sean.  Oh, my, we had gladiator battles at the coliseum, played hide and seek in the ancient Roman baths, found out that the basilica was actually the throne room and not a church for Constantine.  We took a little train tour (think trolley made to look like a train) of the city to rest our weary feet and then went to see the church and cathedral (Dom).  Remember that Trier’s Dom is the oldest cathedral in Germany?  It was the building that captured Paul, he is 7, and he was entranced.  He took my hand to lead me around this church and express his ever increasing amazement.  Miss. Mayland – did you see the organ, ceiling, walls, bones, alter, chapel, and just well, Miss Mayland, did you see that?  And he pointed to all sorts of things with utter wide-eyes and wonderment.  I could not believe that of all of the sites we had seen this would be the one to capture the heart of the youngest child.  Now, remember when we were young and we would go into building that impressed us, and seemed bigger than life, but when we returned as an adult they somehow had lost their grandeur, size or whatever it was that had made such a deep impression upon us; I honestly believe that if he ever has the chance to come back, this place will hold the same awe and wonder as it did when he was 7; and it will most definitely not feel any smaller!

Our final adventure took us to the Black Forest.  We borrowed a friend’s mini-van and enjoyed the views of the mountains and forests.  There is a black forest road that reminds me of the 101 in CA (only without the ocean views) – winding road through little towns, mountains and places to stop to take short or long walks.  An alpine slide was the highlight of the trip, thank you Amy for suggesting we go.  Of course, the weather made it all the more memorable, because it was July and were wearing fleeces under rain coats trying to protect ourselves from the sleet that was coming down in the 40 degree weather, yup, you read that correctly, July 14 was in the 40’s – down right COLD!  But once we were on the slide, think drive it yourself rollercoaster, but all downhill and curvy.  After we were down the sun came out and we had a great day exploring Germany’s highest waterfall (NOT Niagara falls here) in Triberg and then Cuckoo clock shopping.  It is about a 3.5 hour drive from Triberg back to our house, and we left around 4:00pm.  We had easy driving until we were out of the black forest area and approaching the autobahn when once again we rediscovered the hideousness of traffic and road repairs.  After an hour of detour it was clear we were all starving.  The closest place to go for food was Strasbourg, France.  I figured I would easily find a crêperie, French fast food.  The boys thought it would be awesome to eat French food in France so I set out on the search, only to discover that the only ones were in the downtown area and would just delay us too much.  So, Sean and I secretly discussed the idea of stopping at McDonald’s … well, just as you are aghast to read such a thing, the kids were even more aghast to pull into a McDonald’s at which point James announced “Really, we drove all through Germany and into France to eat French food and we are eating at MCDONALDS?!?!?!?!?”  I think we heard that about 20 times through and after dinner.  I think it will make a great title for his “what I did on summer break” essay for back to school.
The link to the full photo album (well, selected photos from over 500 taken)

A lot has happened since the last time I posted.

May 26 – 28 was a spontaneous trip to Brussels, Belgium.  Sean called me on Thursday and told me had the long weekend so I made a reservation at a hotel, discovered that the train was not convenient so this was our first trip of more than 1 hour where we drove.  I didn’t enjoy driving nearly as much as the train.  Did you know that they do construction on roads and there are traffic jams (Stuab), detours and generally loads of cars?  I had forgotten, and was not thrilled with the reminder.  Also, parking spaces in Europe are ½ the size as the US, so parking a US sized Volvo in a Smart car sized parking space it NOT fun!  Search images "Daimler's Smart car".

Once the car was parked, we explored Brussels on foot and it was beautiful, amazing and delicious!  We never did have the great French fries (invented in Brussels) but we made up for that in chocolate and waffles.  The statue of a small boy peeing known as “ Manneken Pis” is from 1619 and they have hundreds of outfits (on display in a museum) for him to wear.  There is a King of Belgium, Albert II, was “in residence” on the day we saw the palace, the flag was flying.  We went to the comic strip museum and found out that Tintin and the Smurfs are Belgian.  Clark was the only one who could read the original comic strips, as they were in French.  But we still enjoyed the drawings.  The architecture is amazing; one of the city gates had a museum in it and MJ and Clark tried on knight’s armor.  My favorite was an archeological dig at the Coudenberg, former Palace of Brussels.  The palace was there in the 12^th century until destroyed by fire in 1731, and the remains were used as the foundation for the present palace.  Brussles was also a leading maker of tapestries, now they are a leading seller of them, but no longer make a lot of them.  This was our first trip with Sean using his new iPhone app Triposo.  You can find his comments at: http://www.triposo.com/logs/sean.reilly.963871/trip/Brussels/443

Here is the link to the photos from that trip.

1 year later ... change ... it is good!

Just a quick note to let you know that ... Clark passed 5th grade and moved up to 6th in the same school.  This will be the first time that he will be in the same school for 2 full years in a row.  MJ passed 2nd grade and she too is staying in the same school with the same classmates.  They both started school this week and already are back in the swing of things.  This year the first day of school did not cause the same level of anxiety in any one of us!  It was also great going shopping for books, I had translators.

Sean is still enjoying his time working in the ICU here at Landstuhl.  He is the director of education for the medical students, residents and fellows who come to train in the Trauma department (48 people can actually come each year and close to 75 want to come).  He took over this position in the spring and quickly realized it was A LOT of work.  So, he asked Mayland, who happened to do this type of work at UPenn for 12 years, if she would be willing to help out.  "Of course".  Well, helping out has turned into a volunteer position through the Red Cross.  It was quickly recognized by the command of the hospital that actually having someone administer all of the medical education activities for physicians-in-training would be advantageous and provide accountability.  So, now, she is volunteer working as the graduate medical education consultant (GME) until a position description can be written (done), approved (30 Aug) and filled (maybe by the volunteer?).  This actually, translates into working almost 40 hours per week to get this up and running.  It  has been fun though, getting back into that area.  It is very rewarding to help facilitate the training of the next generation of military physicians in this very unique setting.
The only down-side is that this could interfere with some of the traveling, a reality that Mayland is working very hard to prevent.  

Need to start planning our fall trip and then Christmas (Spain/Morocco is looking pretty inviting).  Finishing up the photo albums to post for you to see our summer adventures.  We miss you all and hope you decide to come visit!