The Town of Marburg

The third Saturday we were in Germany we took a trip to the town of Marburg. We took a train. (Fisher says I must tell you this was a RED train. And red trains are better than the green ones. They are quieter and have an upstairs and downstairs.) Anyway, we took the train about an hour outside of Frankfurt to this beautiful little town. A very old town that wasn't destroyed in the war. We'll get to how old in a minute.

The red train and the main Frankfurt train station.

Getting ready to leave!

Little Miss "Too cool to be bothered by anything". She really is unbelievably adaptable.

Oh look, proof I was there too. I'm usually the one taking the pictures.

So the train ride went very well. Fisher talked the entire time. I'm pretty sure the people around us who understood English were cracking up at his constant commentary. It really is pretty constant. And funny. So anyway we get to Marburg and leave the train station where we're suddenly in all this more recent construction. I was a little disappointed honestly. I mean, I came here to see a really old town. This was all playing in my head when suddenly... I see a real live, honest to goodness, gingerbread house. The detail is well, amazing. You couldn't even recreate that today, it would cost too much. And people live in that. Can you imagine? (Go ahead and click it to see it bigger. )

So after getting home and doing a little historical research I find out that Marburg has been a town since 1140. I'm sorry what? 1140. There just isn't a way to explain the feeling that goes along with being in a place that old. It has it's own ju ju about it. A vibe if you will. I wanted to run around and physically touch all the buildings. But I figured (and rightly so) that that would look weird so I resisted. But I took pictures. :)

This is the shopping district. Sort of the "uptown or downtown" of the place. And yes, those are cobblestones.

This is a beautiful little church and a farmer's market.

Oh again with the buildings! I could have walked around this place for months taking pictures of buildings. Oh my goodness.

We were actually winding our way up to the castle at the top of the hill. Back in the day you built a castle at the top of the hill and the town filled in all the way down. It was compact and easier to protect everyone. Anyway, that was one bear of a hill. I had Piper in the pouch asleep. That's equal to 23 pounds of dead weight strapped to my front as I, pretty much, hike up this hill. Poor James had to push Fisher in the stroller. (A word to the wise here. If you are going to a town with cobblestones, tiny little stroller wheels are not cool. A jogging stroller is totally the way to go. You will thank me later. ) So I took advantage of the overlook areas to take pictures and to catch my breath.

We would come around a bend in the road to see things like this...

I was kinda already in love with this little town but there were just so many places that you really just couldn't believe. Like, did you know the Brothers Grimm collected many of their fairy tales here? (so says Wikipedia anyway) If you look off in the distance above that building you'll see Rapunzel's tower. Yeah, I totally wish I had packed along the ol' zoom lens that day. But still, Rapunzel's freaking tower. We watched Tangled on the flight out so this wasn't lost on us. Even Piper (who sings the songs in that movie all day long) who's 2 understood the significance of that.

There were, of course, times when we just had to sit down and marvel at it all. (and hug)

I mean, we're in freaking Germany!!

This was totally my favorite house. There is something so crookedly charming about it that I just can't resist. I want to live here. In this house.

You really can feel the history when you're walking around. It's everywhere.

This is St. Elisabeth's Church. And I, with Piper strapped to my front, laid down on the steps to try and get a shot of the huge, gothic-ness of it all. (And of course, failed miserably. But whatever.)

Such a beautiful town. So much history. So much detail. So...much. It was one of those experiences you just know you'll never forget. The first time you wandered through a thousand year old town with your family. Those things kinda stick.

And this boy here, who never met a train he didn't like, got to ride another red one on the way home. I can almost see the excitement floating around him.

I decided to post about the castle itself separately. So that's coming up. But if you ever get a chance to go to Frankfurt, take a train (or take a drive) and go see Marburg. It's worth every second and, every step up that awful hill.

Love,

JKFP

**For those of you wondering, yes we are home. I will probably fill you in on all the awful details of that flight home later. I'm hoping that, like childbirth, the pain will fade from my memory. But for now, lets just catch up on what we did while we were there.

Emotion

I've been trying to keep these updates in order of experience. This one happened yesterday and I just couldn't wait.

It was a perfectly ordinary Saturday morning. We were headed to try and find a new stroller. (a friend spilled applewine ALL over ours and I couldn't get it cleaned with what I have here. Fyi - I've given it to one of the ladies here who will clean it up all nicely and give it to her pregnant friend. I didn't just throw it away.) We hopped off the train and heard the most amazing street performers ever. In the history of forever. The acoustics in the station were perfect. I felt like I was trapped in this whirlwind of excitement and emotion that left me in tears. Tingling all over with emotion. (Just thinking of it now makes my eyes well up.) They finish, everyone cheers and tosses money into their case. Including us. I could have stayed there all day and listened, cried, cheered, tossed $$, repeat. All. Day. I did record just a bit of their amazingness. It's a terrible video. Piper was on my back and wiggling for a view. But see if you can put yourself there anyway. So unexpected. Such pure beauty.






Love,

Me

Naturmuseum Senckenberg

On our second weekend here we went to theSenckenberg Museum of Natural History. It's one of the largest natural history museums in Europe with 6,000 sq. meters and more than 5,000 exhibits. I'm pretty sure we only saw a fraction of that. With only one day to explore each week with James we end up cramming things in. But what we did see was amazing. Of course, everything was in german so we really don't have any idea WHAT we saw. Still cool though.

The outside. Remember I have this fascination with the buildings? Well, another example of why.

The detail is probably my favorite part. (on ALL buildings anywhere)

A dinosaur sculpture in a grassy spot across the way.



Such a fun face here. Squeals of excitement at the huge dinosaurs.

Mineral exampe. James took this. He's pretty good huh? (cute too)

I feel pretty confident saying this is the Mammoth display.

My favorite picture of the day...learning how a volcano works. In german. (well, it's really Fisher telling Piper how positive he is it works this way. I didn't hear the conversation so he may have been right.)

I never did figure out what this fossil is. I'm going with fairy though.

Pretty sure this one's a fish.

I love how grand it all is. Maybe I just need to get out more. I'm sure there are beautiful museums in Denver. Why is it I haven't been there? Putting it on my bucket list. Carly?? Want to go?

Fisher especially tends to blast through this kind of thing VERY quickly and today was no exception. James and I kept trying to get him to slow down and look. I guess just a glimpse is enough for him. (But I already SAW it!!) We were only there for a couple hours and only knew for sure what we were looking at a couple of times. It was (again) a really fun day.

Love,

JKFP

A Day in the Life - German Style

These are from the first few week or so we were here. We tend to eat out often and you pretty much have to take the train for that. My children LOVE trains so it really couldn't be better. They argue over who's going to push the button to make the train door open. They have adapted very quickly to this "city life."

The first time waiting for the train.

James and Fisher goofing off in downtown Frankfurt.

Piper and I strolling in Westend headed to or from (can't remember for sure) Palmengarten.



Interior pic of our favorite Irish Pub where we are served by real live Irish boys!




Pipey is kinda popular here as she looks like a little Irish pixie. And no hate mail please - she didn't drink it. It was just sitting on the table.

Waiting for the bus with our friend Paul.

Some things don't change no matter where you are.

Playing playdough with Paul on a rainy or chilly day.

Piper and I skyping with Carly and Johnny.

Watching a movie in a fort with Paul a few days before he left to head back to the U.S.

Just a little glimpse into our daily lives from here. We leave in a few days and I have quite a few more blogs for you. I may finish up our adventures here after I get home.

Love,

JKFP

An Easter Craft

While packing for this trip I realized we would be celebrating Easter while we were here. I talked a little to Fisher about it and we were trying to come up with a solution that didn't involve bringing their Easter baskets and eggs from home. I have really gotten myself into something here because any time we are faced with a problem like this his answer is always "you should just make it mom". But this time we did. I had planned to bring some felt with me anyway for my mental health crafting. So here's how it went down.

Baskets? Check.

But what to do about the eggs? I refused to haul plastic eggs all the way to Germany!! So I decorated some felt eggs with embroidery.

I made the back out of two pieces that overlap like a pillow sham. Then they can be stuffed with candy.

All candy filled and nestled in the basket.

They each got 6. Here are Piper's.

Two of my favorite ones for Pipey.

Boy colors for Fisher.

Two of my favorites for him.

This one is my REAL favorite. Fisher did this one himself. His first time EVER sewing with a needle and thread!

Unfortunately I don't have any action shots for you. The way we are set up here they sleep in the living room. And the Easter baskets were set out for the Easter bunny in the living room. Late night pictures of filled Easter baskets + sleeping kids = bad Easter experience. But they enjoyed finding their "stuffed" eggs and eating all the goodies.

Happy Easter

Kristin

Palmengarten, Part II

This part of the Palmengarten visit really did deserve it's own separate post. Just past the cave area there is a small lake/pond. There you have a guy who doesn't speak english and a small dock area filled with boats. We all thought it would be fun so we paid the man and took off. No life jackets no nothing. (Those are for sissys I guess.)

View of the other boats as we left the dock.

It was about this time we decided we may as well be labeled at the "silly American tourists". I happened to have some rolls in my bag and James thought it would be fun to feed the natives. Enter ducks...


And Swans...

They flocked to us like - well like ducks to bread. They were everywhere. One even jumped up on the side of the boat. It was too exciting for the kids for me to actually be able to get a picture of that. HOWEVER, there are probably pictures of it in some european tourist's photos because I'm pretty sure they were taking our picture. Cause we looked stupid. But we had oh so much fun. And we became pretty popular with the locals.

They followed us.

Here comes another one!!

See. Chasing us.

It's probably good we got out when we did or we'd have started a riot.

The kids were worn out by the time we got home. Bath and bed felt good after such a long and exciting day.

It was so fun! Just a little 45 minute boat ride. Being chased by begging birds. I bought a little carved wooden swan to remind us of this little part of our adventure. A good time was had by all.

Love,

JKFP