Schloss Lustheim in Autum and Winter

What a big diferrent! The Lustheim Palace at Oberschleissheim near Munich is not far from our apartment in Munich Parkstadt Schwabing. We took only less than 20 minutes to reach one of the important touristic objects in this city. We were there in October this year when autumm had just beginn, the weather was quiet chilly and windy, but the sun shining very well that people could feel the warm temperature at their face beside the cold one when the wind blowed. Water flowing in its Canal of that Palace's Park, where plenty of ducks swam. But then we came back again to that Schloss on January 2009, during winter. At the temperature of minus 12 degree celcius, the Palace'Park had change it face dramatically. Its Canals were frozen, no water flowing, instead a very thick of Ice covering its surface. People could take a walk, running, and ice skating and kids sledging or playing tobbogan there! Those second time we visited the Palace, we were together with the Heinekken family, a colleague from Lorenz, whom their daugther, Lara is about the same age with Nola. The kids were very happy to be taken there, sitting on the wooden sledge and let their father pulling it and toke them "travelling" along way the river canal, from one end to another end. I was freezing though, but very happy for the kids and enjoying our time together there. After a couple of hours, was a time to departed to the Heineke's home, where coffee and a chocolate cake waiting for us.

Bye bye December 08, Wellcome January 09

Left and below, Nola in action in front of a small fountain at the park of the Ice Skating Stadion in Obersdorf.

As ussual, the last couple weeks of December are a holidays time for many people in Germany. It is the time when people spending their time with their families: with their wives, husbands,kids, parents, grand parents etc. We drove to Bremen-Lorenz hometown- at 22nd of December, with two stop overs at Erlangen, to meet some friends. In Bremen, we stayed at Lis Krönert-Lorenz's mother- to celebrate Xmast together. Nola was very happy to see her Oma, and more happy when her cousin, Kaja (8 years old), the daughter of Lorenz's brother came. They played together, and singing and dancing etc.

We spent almost 7 days in Bremen, included a short visit to Oldenburg for visiting friend, to Sullingen for a shopping at Lyod shoes factory outlet ( oh yes, I bought 4 sets of winter boots there and paid only 2 pairs- as their promotion oferred-wich was really a great deal), another outlets near Bremen ( Adidas,Esprit,Nike,Babyzone etc all in one big area). After a week, we drove back to Munich, spent a quiet new year's night at home, doing nothing until January 2009 came. The next first weekend of January, we drove to Obersdorf, about 1,5 hours from Munich for a two days one night winter holiday. Happy new year!

Xmast Celebration at Nikodemaus Kindergarten

On Wenesday night 17th of December, the Nikodemaus Kindergarten where Nola belongs to, celebrating Xmast at their school. It started at 1500 o'clock and we,the parents were invited. The party began with a drama played by the kids, directed by Miriam,the teacher,meanwhile another teachers from this Dolphin group, Ms Merkel and Sandra, accompanying and taking care the kids during their performance. The story was about the birth of Jesus,and Nola got a role as a farmlady who said NO.Yes, her role was only to say no, and she did it very well. After the drama, the kids joined the parents tables and we enjoyed xmast cakes and cookies and warm herbwines an chatting, and then saying goodbye to each other,wishing a merry christmast anf a happy new year 2009. The Kindergarten would have a long break from 24th of december until 7th of January 2009.

A Long Weekend in Vienna

It is been quiet a long time since we went for a city trips. The reason was, city holidays are not very realxing when we travel with a two years old child. Thats why we prefer to go to the nature: to the mountains or beaches or parks or farmhouses , where Nola can explore and runing freely all the time, without we hate too much worry of her security. But I missed cultural and city sightseeing, and because Nola is a kindergarten Girl now, we thought we can start again with short city holidays. We started with Vienna, Austria, it is only a couple of hours from Munich, the city where we live. We departed on Wenesday the last week of October and stay there until Saturday morning. It was a long weekend holiday for us. Before we left, I have already booked family room at the hotel Eurostar Vienna: http://www.eurostarshotels.com, which is located near the city centre. I did the packing, especially for Nola since many days before, in order not to forget anything. Remember, we are not going to the family hotel, so, I had to prepare Nola's toys, books, something for drawing, snacks,medicine, bottles, plastics mugs and plates, and diapers.

the journey from Munich to Vienna was quiet fun, and in about 5 hours, we arrived at the hotel. After checking in, we went to the indoor swimming pool at the underground level of the hotel, and had a dinner at our room. The next days, after breakfast, we took a tram to the city centre, and began to explore the old part of Vienna. Our first destination was the Regina Museum, where Van Gogh paintings exhibition is going on, and then, continue to see the Gustav Klint paintings exhibition at the Beleverde Palace and Museum. The next, we went to the house created by Hundertwasser, a very famous artist in Europe. The Building was very colourfull made, with curves and hilly, reminding me to the one created by Gaudi in Barcelona, Spain. Except the house, there was cafes and restaurants created by Hundertwasser, where we had lunch and coffee there. We continued exploring the Old Town of Vienna until our last day in Austria, and then, packing our stuff to the car, and drove back home: to Munich.

One day with Dirndl a la Bavaria

In October, the city of Munich is still celebrating the famously Octoberfest. Immediatly, we can see people, young and old, going out wearing the traditional Bavarian dress, the Tracht or Dirndl. It is look very fashionable in this month, wearing Dirndl, and going to the Octoberfest. We are not going to the fest this year, but we had a chance to wear our Tracht last week. We were invited by Lorenz's coleague from BMW, celebrating his 50th birthday at a small town in the north of Munich. The dress code was: bavarian traditional. The dress I had was already two years old, luckily still fit into my body eventhought I felt that I could not breath freely again!

Nola had the new one, since she doesn't have any Dirndl. It is still too long for her, but at least she would able to wear it again next year. Lorenz had the same old tracht he had since the last two years, it still look good eventhought getting too tight. However, it was a very good feeling to wear the tradition Bavarian dress once a year, especially in the month of October, when many people are wearing the same dress, so we do not have any feeling of being strage or unique on public. I do not know wether we have to buy the new traditional dress for October next year or not, it is depend on how much we gain weight next year, off course!

PS: sorry, the pictures are not too sharp.

Nola is Going to Kindergarten !

September 16th was a special day for Nola. It was her first day at the Kindergarten. She is already 2,5 years old, but we were lucky that she got a place very soon at the Kindergarten. In Germany, mostly kids are starting their Kindergarten at 3 years old. And in some big cities like Munich, it is not very easy to get a place on time, so we are not surprised to see kids are starting their Kindergarten at 3,5 years old.As a parents, we should apply for our kids since she was 2 years old or even younger, and we were advised to apply to as many schools as possible, But I was too lazy looking for a school for Nola, we applied only into two Kindergartens which are very near from our appartment. And gotcha! we go a phone call one day, Nola was accepted at the nearest school we have here, only 5 minutes walking distance! We were very happy with the news. On the first day, Nola as not happy to go to the Kindergarten, she was crying and holding my hand all the time. I should stay at school with her until midday and then we went home together. The next day was the same, she would not go out from home and would not go to the Kindergarten. I had to stay at her class room and playing with her. The other day I could leave her for one hour, but when I said good bye, she cried. After the fifth day I left Nola the whole day at the Kindergarten, from 8.30 am till 14.30 pm. The teachers told me that she cried only for five minutes but then started to play with others kids. Since then, we started our new regular activities: waking up in the morning, breakfast, get ready for school. Nola loves to choose her own outfits, and asked me sometimes to make a photographs of her. After, she would happily say : lets go to the Kindergarten!

Holiday at Friesland

We spent a week at Friesland, the North part of Germany, at the little village name Horum. This holiday was our birthdays holidays since Lorenz had his birthday at 9th September and mine at 13th of September. This year we decided to go to Horum which is located at the north coast of Germany and stay at one familotel the Friesland Stern there. The familotel is one of the very good idea for couples with children like us, it is a horse farm with a very big outdoor playground completed with some kind of animals like: rabits, goats, guinea pigs, ponies, horses,cats etc which fascinated all the kids. The hotel have as well a kids room with two caretaker for the children which is started from 9.30 till 16.00 hours.We dropped Nola at mornings until middays, so that we have time to have coffees, or reading and enjoying the city of Horum and surrounding alone. At mid day, we picked up Nola and went to the beach at Schillig or to the thermal swimming pool at Horumersiel, and came back to the hotel for dinner. After dinner, we still have time to acommpany Nola playing at the playground and feeding the animals. We were lucky with the weather , we had between 15-20 degree Celcius, but at some days, the Wind was blowing very hard there: some times until 35 km/hours! The beach were full with the Strand Korb or the Rattan Chairs which are looked like a box, they are the perfect chair for enjoying the North Sea, it protecting you from the strong wind.