One of the inevitable realizations of living abroad (or even just from traveling) is discovering that there is more than one way of doing things.  Different is neither good nor bad, but simply different and often eye-opening.  This post will cover some of those neutral observations to "Wow - that is just cool!"

Above: standard sizes for sugar and flour.  Above right: vanilla comes sugared and in packets, like baking powder.

Jello sheets!

I've written before about the challenges of baking your tried and true recipes in another country. Different ingredients are always a wildcard. We've been surprised at the relatively small package sizes of some products -- no wonder people go shopping for often here and it's not just because of the smaller fridges!

Urban Farming at its finest!  Our friends Petra and Oliver have 7 hens and 2 roosters in a homemade coop in their front yard.  Fresh eggs most mornings although one hen, Lady Gaga, is withholding 3 eggs right now.  Chicks are expected within the week!

Tree huggers in the truest sense, they buy local and organic and serve meat rarely. This is the green roof on their garage.  Now that's what I call walking the walk!







Slugs here continue to fascinate us. We found this monster on the patio.  He had already constricted quite a bit by the time we fetched a pencil and the camera. 

Brown, black, beige and ... orange?

A neighbor grew tired of people dumping their yard waste in this grassy lane alongside her house. So she initiated the Hochzeitsallee or Wedding Alley. Newlyweds can buy a tree and plant it along the lane, complete with a dedication sign.  Now everyone benefits from it!

At Declan's kindergarten - in summer, a place to park your bike, in winter your sled.  Living in a village certainly has some advantages.  We don't even lock his bike up.

Sliced French bread, sauteed bologna/Spam shapes and ketchup garnish.  A hit with the kids!

There seem to be local beekeepers on every corner and you definitely can taste the difference in the honey based on where the hive was.

Serena's school scheduled a Dirndl Tag!  Seems to go well with Schnitzel Tag which is every Thursday in the school cafe.

Walpurgisnacht takes its name from Saint Walburga, an English abbess.  Traditionally, witches were kept away with big fires and since the villagers were assembled around a bonfire anyway, they would dance, and drink and celebrate the upcoming growing season and, oh yeah, pray for protection from those pesky witches.  Nowadays, people celebrate Walpurgisnacht on April 30 by dancing their way into May - Tanz in den Mai. Mischief still abounds but no longer by those witches but rather bored teenagers.  Our swap family reminded us to pack all outdoor furniture away and lock all doors.  Apparently a few years ago,  some kids had pulled out the boards of their compost pile and redistributed them around the neighborhood.

Father's Day is celebrated on Himmelfahrt, or Ascension Day, which is 40 days after Easter, always on a Thursday and it's a public holiday.  Many fathers (and many non-fathers) will spend the day going for a walk, singing, and pulling their wagon filled with beer.

What happens on Mother's Day you may be wondering?  Often the mom cooks and cleans and hosts her family.  Apparently, nothing says "I love you Mom" like leaving her a heap of dirty dishes!


One of the coolest hikes we've taken is to a nearby steinere Rinne. a raised stone groove caused by the slow deposit of chalk by a trickle of water.  This specimen was thigh/waist high but some in Bavaria can be 5 meters high!  Since this is such a rare geotope, there are no signs whatsoever.  We spent 40 minutes searching!

Our very last visitors were the Richards family from Milwaukee.  Sadie and Stella went to school with Serena and Emma.









We all headed south for a long weekend in the Alps.  First stop: Oberammergau - home of beautiful, intricately painted homes and the famous Passion Play which takes place every 10 years.

We took the Zugspitzbahn to the first of two plateaus.  45 minutes, change to a cable car, then another 10 minutes.  At 2962 meters high (9717 feet), it is the highest peak in Germany and is sandwiched by three glaciers.

We were surprised how warm the summit was. All the mittens and scarves stayed in the backpack.

From the German side, you can walk a bit across to the Austrian border.

Just relaxing in the clouds...

Afterwards we headed to the Partnachklamm in Garmisch Partenkirchen.  It's 700 meters long and the deepest point is 80 meters.  Very loud and wet!  Although it was really cool to see how violently the water had cut through stone, the kids were so tired from the day that ice cream was the only thing that could lure them to the Klamm.

Just down the road, we discovered the Olympic ski jump built in 1923 and used in the 1936 Olympics.

We stayed at the most perfect hostel we've ever been to in Mittenwald.  This is the view from our window.  Austria is just to the left.

See all the little shacks dotting the field below?  A local informed us the each farmer uses that to store his straw harvested from his little plot.  Wooden spikes are used to dry the straw and it's gathered by hand. No resource sharing?

On our last morning, we visited the Geigenbaumuseum in Mittenwald.  The kids tried their hand at woodworking in the workshop.  We all gained some appreciation for the number of hours put into every handmade violin.   Maybe someday Emma....

 


Scenes from the beautiful town of Mittenwald

Finally, the most famous castle in Germany.... Schloss Neuschwanstein!  It takes a lot of effort to get there, remember to preorder tickets to avoid the 90 minute line, then hike 40 minutes up the mountain.  Your ticket allows you exactly one 10 minute window to enter the castle for the guided tour.  Just over 6000 people visit it PER DAY in summer!

Crazy King Ludwig II of Bavaria had this castle built as an homage to Richard Wagner.

The view from the castle...

The line was too long to ride the carriage up but it sure added to the magical atmosphere.  And yes, our children had ice cream on this day too!