Atherton Family Notes

A funny thing happens when you start feeling the crunch of time running out. You can be sitting there quite comfortably in your role as a foreigner when all of a sudden you get a wake up call. Like someone snuck up from behind and whacked you over the head with a calendar. You start to realize that you have a list of places still left to see and only 2 really good months for traveling left. Ken and I got this wake up call recently and began planning our time left here.

This past weekend we headed to Bern, Switzerland. Last year, we drove through Bern on a late Sunday evening and fell in love with its charm. Nothing was open so we decided to make a return trip. This time around, we found it not so charming. The streets were packed with Saturday afternoon shoppers and it made it very difficult to get around with three kids in tow. The wonderful window-shopping I had enjoyed the first time was replaced by a wall of people inching their way through the crowds. My hopes of finding a good painting or souvenir from Switzerland were fading fast. I had enough and it was only 3 in the afternoon. We trudged through the town anyway and made our way to the tourist office to find a hotel.

With that settled we then walked across the town to get to the bear pits. The stores were closing and the crowds became fewer. Along the way we found a chocolate shop getting ready to close down and decided we needed to run in for a sample of the chocolate the Swiss are famous for. Ken returned with a good size sample box. Yum! I could not wait to get into it but alas, the bear pits were closing soon and we had to get going.

The bear pits were not quite what we had expected. It was more or less a hole in the ground that 3 bears wandered around in. They stood on hind legs to beg the people watching them for food. The kids enjoyed teasing the bears with leaves they picked up from the ground. This fun lasted all of about 15 minutes.  The show was over and the kids turned to the dirt to find entertainment. At that point we decided it was time to return to the car and head to the hotel.

While getting situated to start our long walk back I looked up to see a group of Asian tourists pointing and laughing hysterically. I follow their gaze and come upon Ken with Celia on his shoulders. In our rush to get going that morning, I dressed Celia in an outfit handed down from Carissa. Apparently, I did not check the fit well enough, they were a bit big yet. You see, her ENTIRE bottom end was hanging out and she was mooning the whole population of Bern.

Just a few more “bare” things in Bern.

Just a short distance from our car we came upon a antique shop. Well, to call it an “antique shop” is giving it more credit that it deserves but that was the name on the window. I would have called it more of a junk store. Out on the sidewalk there stood an old shoeshine stand. It was old, that much I could see. It was interesting and unique. I wanted to buy it. I walked in to the store to see how much it costs and I was floored by the amount of stuff everywhere! Things were piled on top of other piles, which were on top of other piles. There must have been an entire house worth of stuff jam packed into a 10×12 room. It was a nick-nackers nightmare! Do you get the picture yet? I was standing there in awe, when out of the back emerged an little old man. He must have seen “English speakers” written on our foreheads and began talking to us in English. He was an interesting man and we talked while I shopped. (if you can call it that) I honestly think I could have spent an entire day there looking at everything. He had a lot of crap but in the midst of it all, were a few beautiful items. In the end, I went away with my shoe shine stand and a small suit of armor. The kids walked away with a mouth full of candy and little stuffed animals given to them by the little old man.

That night we put the kids to bed and sat down to our box of chocolates. My intention was to just eat one or two pieces but… Well, let’s just say, there is a reason the Swiss know chocolate. There was a note in the box saying all the chocolate is made in that store, for that store only. The chocolate they use is to delicate and fragile to ship and can not withstand the travel. This in turn, makes for very smooth, creamy, dreamy chocolate. I could not stop myself. Each one was better than the last and you just had to bite into another one to see how it could get better. I have to say that I am glad we did not end up living in Switzerland! We would be broke from the mounds of chocolate I would have purchased. Visiting however was fantastic. The town really was beautiful.

The next morning we took off on a drive along the lake towards Ballenberg. This is an open air, real working museum that has several houses and artifacts that date back as early as the 1500′s. Crafts people work on the farms using traditional tools making everything from baskets to sausages to lace. The farms were also equipped with lots and lots of animals. We spent most of the morning and afternoon there before the kids became to unbearable and we had to leave.

Europe knows their bread and can do amazing things with it!

One of the most beautiful Swiss chalets I have ever seen. This was at the museum.

One of the old wardrobe cabinets. Wayne… get your tools ready! Guess what we are making when I get home!!

Our next stop was Emmental. The famous Swiss cheese was named after this place where it is made and we went to see how it is made. The drive was breathtaking. The lake was crystal clear aqua blue and the small mountains rose up from all sides. When we finally arrived in Emmental, it was close to closing time and there just happened to be a small festival going on. We had enough time to tour the factory and see how it was made. Carissa was fascinated with the machines and watching the man make cheese. We purchased a small sample and headed out to the festival. There, the girls were able to milk a cow. O.K., not a real one. It was a plastic life size cow that had soft utters from which you can squeeze to bring the milk out. A training cow dummy basically. Ken picked up a jug of fresh apple cider and fried apple fritters. They had been calling our names since we first arrived and smelled the wonderful aroma.

A view of the lake and mountains. Just breathtaking!

I have to say, we had a great weekend! I can’t wait to see what the next month leads to and where it takes us.

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Sometimes I can get blown away by comments and ideas the kids have. This was no exception. One day last week Rissa came to me and asked for a big piece of paper to make a dress from. I did not quite understand what she meant but gave her the paper and sat back to watch. She drew a life size dress (for her anyway) on one side and proceeded to turn it over. Directly on the back, she drew the back on that dress. She then handed me the scissors and asked me to cut it out saying, “and make a hole for my head and arms to go in.” After wiping the tears of laughter away I informed her that she needed to make 2 separate dresses. She got the picture and began work on the new dress. Celia decided she also wanted to join the fun and I made and outline for her dress that she could color in. We cut them out, taped them together, and sported them for the camera.  Here are the results of their creative thinking:

Notice the puffy sleeves and the white sash across the waist. Who knows maybe we have a future designer here.

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One of the things Ken and I decided that we HAD to do before we left Germany, was to spend the night in a castle. We found one, booked it, and headed that way this past weekend. It was Gutenfels Castle, Kaub built circa 1200. It had a beautiful situation on the Rhein river overlooking the Pfalzgrafenstein Castle of which was located in the middle of the river. I will not bore you with details of the history of the castles themselves but only with the story of our stay.

The view from the castle garden.

We arrived around dinner time on Friday evening and noticed that a small town called Ruedesheim seemed like a good place to start exploring. When we arrived there, most things had begun to close for the evening. We found a small restaurant serving up German foods and sat down to a table. When the schnitzel and sauerbraten was finished up we decided to tour the town to kill time before bed. It had alot of charm but nothing that I would call spectacular. It was dark and beginning to get late so we packed the kids in the car and were off to the castle!

When we unloaded, Carissa looked up in awe of the building. This was a huge love of hers, castles and princesses. She looked on for a bit then asked if I thought there was a dungeon. I told her probably because that is where the dragon lives. I then proceeded to tell her and Celia that they needed to be on their best behavior. The queen did not like bad little girls breaking things in her house and if she found little kids jumping on beds and screaming, she would surly send them to the dungeon with the dragon. Laugh or shame me if you will about my parenting skills but, my kids have never been better behaved in all their hotel experienced days!! They whispered upon entering the gates so as to not wake the queen from her sleep and never stopped whispering the entire night and morning. They did not once jump on the beds (which is usually the favorite thing to do immediately upon arrival), and did not fight or pick on each other.

The Castle was beautifully old. The interior common area was an open square with balconies filled with red geraniums, and a tower that loomed overhead. The doors to the halls were intricate works of art with door handles that are beyond explanation. There is just no way to do them justice and if I were the thieving kind, I would have loved to take several home with me. The rooms themselves, were not elaborate, just very old. The were furnished very simply with a king size bed with a small and simple headboard, and built in bunkbeds of medieval style. The floors squeaked with every step. I do not think even a mouse could have walked without being heard throughout the entire castle.

The interior court area of the castle.

I really began to understand the pains of living in those times. The beds were hard and the pillows so flat that it took 4 folds to make them good sleeping height. There was no shower (just a bathtub), clock, or television in the room. There was not even an outlet for a hairdryer in the bathroom. (O.K., so there was one in the room and I was able to dry my hair from there but I still had to do it blindly.) What was a girl to do? (please note: insert a joking attitude in here!!)

The next morning we went down to the great hall to eat our breakfast. We had the entire hall to ourselves at the early hour of 8:30. Again, thinking the queen may come to join us, the kids were beautifully behaved. No queen showed and we started our day.

The dinning hall of the castle.

The girls and I next to the moss covered walls outside the castle gates.

We drove up the river north towards Koblenz stopping and taking pictures of various castles. I was quite shocked at how close they were together. One maybe every mile or two. Must have been their equivalent to a housing addition back then! They graced both sides of the river and the towns look so unique and charming. Of coarse, most of those were on the other side of the road. We came upon the Marksburg Castle which I had wanted to tour. It was listed in the books as one of the most preserved castles in Germany. It sustained no damage from the wars. We waited for our guided tour in German and set off. About half way through we came to the kitchen which was filled with smoke from the days cooking. There were people dressed of medieval costumes showing what life was like. I was fascinated by a lady spinning her own wool into yarn. Since I could not understand the German guide I focused my attention on her. Turns out she spoke English and so I began asking questions about her skills. By the time we were done talking, our group was long gone, we were lost, and I had found a new hobby. Ken and I tried desperately to find the rest of the group. We looked up every staircase and in every open door. Just as we were about to give up the next tour group emerged from the kitchen. We decided we would just sneak into it. They came out and immediately went into another locked door. (turns out we did not explore EVERY door) Ken tried to hold the door open and follow in but the tour guide was very adamant about us not joining and pulled the door shut behind him. This left us stranded again. Seeing how it was almost noon and the kids were getting restless, we opted to go find lunch and skip out on the rest of the tour. In all, we had seen 12 of the 17 rooms.

Koblenz was our next stop and it was a rather large city. We quickly found a shopping mall open until 8 pm but headed for the city center instead. We had our time shopping and exploring when it started to rain a bit. Thinking of the drive back, we called it quits. Near the car we discovered a HUGE (and I mean HUGE) pile of leaves. I saw a perfect photo opportunity here. The kids and I had a little fun playing and shooting pictures in the leaves.

The drive back to the hotel was interesting and we stopped off in several small towns that stuck out on the drive up. It was late on Saturday evening (well, after 4 anyway) and everything was closed up. The next bridge that crossed the river was back down in Mainz which was south of our hotel. Knowing it was a large town we figured it would have stores open until 8 pm. We guessed right. Along the way we came to a Wal-mart! What luck! We were able to waste most of the night away there before going back to the hotel for another squeaking night of sleep.

Sunday morning after breakfast, we packed up and headed home. There was one stop ken wanted to make along the way. He just HAD to get a picture of a sign for a town named ” Assmannshousen”. We had a flyer put on our car for a restaurant nearby there named “Dinkelsack”. Ken swears the Germans name things just to amuse him! And the two together made us question the obsession with lower parts of a male’s anatomy in this area!

I wanted to stop off in Ruedesheim once more at the off chance there were shops open. I was in luck! We walked up a very busy side street to find a overwhelming number of tourist shops. I picked up a few things and Ken was able to find some wine sporting the name of his now most favorite town, Assmannshausen.

On the way out of town, we grabbed several bratwurst (see, sometimes we eat more than just McDonald’s) from a local vendor. Strange how good they are to us now and how I actually enjoy eating them. The kids gobbled up theirs as well and it was smooth sailing all the way back home. The trip home was perfectly situated at nap time and so the kids slept most of the 3 hour drive back.

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hey all! Hope you are doing good. We are doing well here. We have stopped traveling for this month so we are well rested up for the Christmas markets that start the last weekend of November. They are a lot of fun and the kids enjoy them, but they can be quite exhausting! The weather is holding out good here. Not too cold.

I was inspired by Wayne ( a big thanks to my father-in-law) to take this picture of Rissa. I tried to get CeCe and Sadie too, but they did not cooperate! Maybe I can catch them on a better day.

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