What a beautiful day in Germany! Chris woke up and took a little walk around our hotel before we took off. The views were truly spectacular!
We didn't get to feed the special sheep, but we did get to see them!
Then it was on to the little bakery in town for breakfast.
Love, love, love that pretzels are breakfast!
Chris got "The best cinnamon bread in the world" and we all ate while we drove to Freudenstadt.
Not the best picture, but that purple line is our route. See those crazy zig zags? We did that a bunch of times today. Like Twist Run, just a million times more fun!
We arrived in Freudenstadt and checked out the largest market square in all of Germany!
You can see the fountains in the background. Every school child in Germany was here with their class today on a field trip. Sprinklers and ice cream.
Zack and Chris tried to master a unicycle... But did not succeed in even getting upright.
After a bit of shopping (I found fun foldable cushions for sport sideline watching (especially great for gymnastics bleachers!), it was ice cream time. Both kiddos said it wasn't quite as good as Italy!
Bender found some pastries and was a happy man.
Ears burning Dolly Lucas? So many cute little lady bugs!
Then Bender found MORE pastries, including an apple strudel - yay!! He's been waiting.
He tried it as soon as we got outside! Have it two big thumbs up!
Then we jumped back in the car and headed to Aachbad swimming pool in Singen to meet the Schaffners. Portions of the road we needed to be on were closed, but we made it. Thank goodness for GPS (and Bökelers who could program it to English!!). We couldn't have done Germany without it! But we made it and the kids were so happy to see their friends! We all headed to the pool.
On the way, we crossed over the world's most expensive bridge. Really.
Look at the craziness in the background! Aachbad is a complex that includes three pools, diving boards and platforms, a slide, a whirlpool and access to a super cold stream that starts in the Alps.
It was unusually hot for Germany (so much for all those pants we brought. Not wearing those!), so the boys dunked their heads in the stream. Bender said it was Cayuga, hurt your ankles cold.
The crazy Benderz all love diving boards, especially when there are no rules! Flip, twist, jump (Zoe did all three at once when she got brave!)...anything goes. As a matter of fact, the only rule we seemed to encounter was no taking pictures of other people's kids. A lifeguard yelled at me in German until Frank came to my rescue. Then he warned me that no other kids should be in the pictures and that I had to zoom close. I smiled and took a couple more and put my phone away. It was a really fun couple hours!
We also did some taste testing.
Then we jumped in the car and headed to...
Which are ruins of an old fortress on top of a dormant volcano in Singen. While Frank was getting tickets, Julia, Niklas, Zack and Zoe got into the mood.
This is what the fortress looked like before it was destroyed.
The Schaffners went for a 9k training run this morning, so the Bender kids took pity on them, and offered piggy back rides for a very small portion of the trip up.
Crazy beautiful views!
Checking out the prison cell.
The hike up to the ruins was actually pretty steep.
Zoe needed a little rest.
The view from the top was definitely worth the work to get there.
Then it was time to head back down...dinner reservations were waiting!!
After our fall in Monterosso, Zoe and I have been extra careful. She had an extra hand on her way down the hill. Those stones were slippery!
Everyone was so happy to be done and in cars heading to dinner...except for Frank's car! That 19% gradient hill did a job on it! After a little break, all was good. Phew!
On to Anglerheim for dinner. When asked what we wanted to eat, we said "traditional German." That's definitely what we got! Frank's brother, sister in law and niece also joined us.
We were so very close to the lake! Lake side dining is always a good idea!
This picture was from the water behind the restaurant.
I cannot believe I forgot to take a picture. Everyone had spaetzle and schnitzle and cleaned their plates. So much yum! Need a good German place in Jax too! After dinner, the kids wanted to swim in the lake. We hadn't made it to the hotel, so their suits were still in the car. So they changed and swam for almost an hour after dinner. Imagine jumping in the river after dinner at Clarks?
Then they dried off by swinging for a while.
We still had a 40 minute ride to our hotel, so it was time to say goodbye. Luckily Frank's brother had called out hotel to explain we would be arriving late. No problem, just got a code to get in, key would be on counter. Room 103. Except when we arrived, the big outside gate for the driveway was locked. So Bender unloaded our suitcases and the kids and I went to try and figure things out. We got in and got our suitcases up the first flight of stairs with some help from a nice guy who didn't speak any English. But there was no key!! Figuring maybe it was in the door, I headed upstairs only to find people in our room!! I quickly went back downstairs to wait for Bender to arrive. As he was coming in, the nice German man and his English speaking wife arrived. We told her our situation and after explaining that they had given the key to 103 to another group, she called the owners. At least we had the wifi code ;) It was 11:00 at this point.
The owner arrived about ten minutes later and apologized and put us in a nice room. We are moving to 103 tomorrow, because it is our room. Nobody really knows who the people in 103 are...including the owner. Anyhow, this is the boys room. The girls looks very similar.
These are the comfiest hotel beds ever...looking forward to sleep. We are meeting Schaffners for breakfast before the ropes/zip line course tomorrow morning.
Sweet dreams all!
XOXO,
Benderz
My favorite today... The gym! :-)
ReplyDelete