Garmisch April 2008

Yep, third trip to Garmisch--Nick's fourth. He had the choice to attend the Army Dental Conference, with permissive TDY (meaning he didn't have to take any leave to be able to go). Of course, he said yes, because who would say no to a free week of leave in the Alps? This time, unlike last year, all of us were able to go. Instead of camping, we rented one of the "Rustic" cabins. Rustic just means there's no running water in the cabin itself and you have to bring your own towels. There's still a micro, fridge, table, chairs, bed, bunkbed, loft bed, DVD/satellite TV. Not too rustic, in our opinion. Plus, it was something like 400 bucks for a week as opposed to 150 at LEAST a night at the lodge. And, we could pretend we were camping. I was extremely thankful to not be in a tent with the two kiddos while Nick was at the conference, because it rained about 80% of the time he was gone. Having to stay in a tent would NOT have been my ideal choice.

We spent a lot of time at the library while Nick was at seminars, and went for walks. There's a delicious little bakery just down the road from the base. I wanted to taste every kind of bread they made, but I think I would have to go there every day for a month to do so! There was also a nice little park across the campsite from us, and the pool at the lodge was always available.

As a family we went on a couple hikes, one up to a little huette on the mountain above the base, with a great view of the valley. It was quite a steep ascent, and Nick and I were ready for a little rest, what with each of us carrying a child.

One of the other dentists from Nick's clinic came down to the conference as well, and we spent a few evenings hanging out with him at our site, and Nick did some serious hiking with him one afternoon. They rented snowshoes from Outdoor Rec, even, because snow was still pretty thick up closer to the top.



We did have a major dud of the trip. We decided to go up to Munich one afternoon and check out the Fruehlingsfest (spring fest). We should have known, when they said it was at the platz where Oktoberfest is, only smaller, that it was not worth our while. We were thinking good beer/wine, some local vendors, etc., and it ended up being a lame-o carni fest. We are not big carnival fans, but we told Stella she could ride the Ferris Wheel, so that's all we did. Then, we walked around Munich in search of a restaurant, walked through a bit of the English Garten hoping to find a nice outdoor imbiss or something, with no luck. We then attempted public transport combos of buses and subways to get back to the center, and were stuck on a subway going nowhere for about 15 minutes. Public transport that day was no fun. We had taken the train to get there, and the actual train wasn't bad, but the whole trip was pretty boring. We had hoped it would be better than staying in Garmisch, since it seemed like it was going to rain, but it turned out we were wrong and it had been sunny the whole time! Grrr...live and learn.


The trip overall was fun, though. It's always great to see the mountains and go "camping." Stella had a blast. The day we were leaving there was a kid-fest at the community center on base and she got to play with play-doh, make huge bubbles, get her face painted, watch a puppet show, ride a trike with pedals for the first time, and decorate a cookie. Not too bad!

The Netherlands-April 2008

We went to the Netherlands this April, and I'm just now blogging it. I guess two kids really do change things! We went because Nick had a 4-day weekend, and I've always wanted to go see the flowers.

The drive up was uneventful, until we tried to fill up with gas. We have gas coupons that we can use to get gas at State's prices, instead of Europe prices (8-10 bucks per gallon!), and we could not find a gas station that would take them. We spent about 45 bucks, I think, on 5 gallons of gas! CRAZY! Other than that, we arrived at our destination without a problem. Our kids are such great travelers, I must say. We are very blessed!.

We stayed at a place near the beach that had an amusement park on the "campus." We rented a trailor home-type set up. It was convenient, in that we could bring our own food (self-cater), but really not that much cheaper. It was REALLY nice that we could use the awesome water park for free, and Stella could ride all the amusement park rides for free, and play on their huge playground all she wanted. I suppose that's the major perk. We don't have kids old enough to really use it, though, and we didn't go to the Netherlands to vacation at an amusement park, so Nick and I were kind of wishing we had found a B&B or something right on the beach. Next time!

We went to Haarlem the first day. The town itself is really cool. The first thing we were impressed by (and extremely jealous of!) were the proliferation of bike lanes. EVERY street. There were very cool bikes everywhere. We want Dutch cruiser bikes! The chain guards are completely enclosed so you don't get hung up, sturdy bikes, easy to get around because it's so flat, very cool bike seats for kids, I could go on.

Anyway, the reason we went to Haarlem was to see the Corrie Ten Boom house. She, along with her sister and father, hid Jews in a "hiding place" during WWII. There's actually a book and movie that is based on her story. It's incredible, and I highly recommend visiting if you ever get the chance. The story of the gospel and redemption is so beautiful, everyone had tears in their eyes. She has also written many books, and toured the world telling her story and working with groups of people to make peace. You can read more about her on the web: www.corrietenboom.com.


While we were waiting for an English tour at the museum, we walked around town a bit. We stopped at a cheese store and bought some delicious Dutch farmer's cheese, bread, and a bottle of wine. We had no glasses though, so we had to be really classy and drink it from a straw! We also walked through their local market and bought some of my favorite cookies--stroopwaffels. They are two thin waffels (think homemade waffel cones at an ice cream shop) with a layer of caramel in between. Heaven! I was amazed, too, at the prices of huge bouquets of flowers, and sad that I couldn't buy a bunch to bring home with us!


After our time in Haarlem, we drove on the "Flower street" so we could see the flower fields where they grow famous Dutch bulbs. There was only one field of tulips blooming at the time, but lots of daffodils and hyacinth. It really looked like color field painting, or something, to see the number of flowers in one place. The next day we were able to bike along some of them and take pictures more closely. I got the one that I had in my head, and was hoping to take, of Stella sitting in the middle of a field of flowers. :)


After we got back to the "cabin" for naps we took a bike ride to the beach. We had a pretty good set-up. Stella was in a bike seat on my bike, and Nick pulled the trailer with Ezra in the "bucket." The beach borders the North Sea, and though Stella really wanted to go in, ya know, it was cold enough for her to wear her winter coat so we decided against it. She still had plenty of fun in the sand. The wind was blasting, so it made it a bit chilly. We had a great time, and the dunes that lead up to the beach are beautiful.



The next day we spent all day on our bikes. We went to the pool, then rode out along the beach to the next town up from us, got ice cream, then rode back a little further on to the next town the opposite way and stopped for dinner. Stella was a happy girl, as she got Dutch pancakes for dinner two nights in a row, and she got to play on the playground before bedtime, too.






The last day Stella spent the morning riding the amusement rides. Nick found a "field" of trampolines that were even with the ground that they had fun bouncing from one trampoline to the next. We then headed home, after FINALLY finding a gas station that accepted our coupons. It was conveniently located right in the town we stayed in, thank God.