Summer vacation, Part 2

School has been back in session for two weeks now, but this is the first opportunity I've had to review those last three weeks of summer vacation. The girls and I did two hikes on our own, one to neighboring Wiesloch and one "educational tour", which taught us about the history of the quarries in our area. K & U spent one day on a summer program which took them down south to the Black Forest, where they baked "bread on a stick" over the fire, went down into a mine, watched a play, and explored a castle. They also attended a soapstone carving class. Kathryn also went to a Hip-Hop Dance class. We all attended a preview screening of Cars, finally got to see Ice Age 2, walked through a cornfield labyrinth, and three of us got their permanent residency permits (for some beaurocratic reason, I have to wait until October 20th).

The four "big trips": we visited Bruchsal Palace with my cousin Eva and her partner Klaus.


Then we drove up to Cologne for a day to visit Harriet and Martin (and their three girlies, Kim, Mia, and Liv). All the kids got along fabulously, and we ended up spending a lot of time with the Wietkamps, and giving most of Cologne a miss. However, we did go into the city to see the cathedral (see top) and have an ice cream.


Left, Liv and Ursula; right, Mia, our webbed friend, Kathryn in the plaza fronting the cathedral.

Before the end of vacs Mike took a six day weekend, and the weather played along so we could realize some of our excursion plans. One was a 30km bike tour to Balzfeld (aka the middle of nowhere), which has as its sole point of interest a very small zoo. Still, the myriad types of birds were fun to look at, the shetland ponies were willing to be stuffed with corn, and the playground kept us busy for 30 minutes. Along the way we visited with cows and horses and saw some towns we'd like to visit again. In Wiesloch we found the Jewish cemetary and a memorial to the families that lived there prior to their deportation.

I foresee more bike trips in our future, once Kathryn gets a bigger bike especially!

Unfortunately our two month old camera took a spill just before our last excursion, to Luisenpark in Mannheim. All I can say is: kid paradise. The old-school film has to be developed first, so look in a future posting...

Next posting I hope to cover Dad and Kathy's visit as well as other fun stuff. Till then!