Ok. I'll admit it, we felt a bit excessive with our vacation 'week'. First, we had the weekend in Athens, then we land, and drive to the Bayerischer Wald (Bavarian Forest) for a week with the kids and my inlaws. But, we had this week in the Bavarian Forest planned for a while...it's not our fault that a friend got married, right?
Unfortunately, the weather was less than idea. Rather cool and rainy. But, as Eva would say: there is no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothes. Well, we had our rainy day clothes packed.
We stayed at our favorite place near Lam: a family farm / B&B where the whole family pitches in. The family is super nice, and they have two kids about the same ages as our children. They added a nice playroom upstairs in the main house, which both kids love to play in.
The eldest daugher remembered Quinn. We were there 16 months ago. I guess I just find that amazing. I can't remember what I did yesterday.
After feeding the deer with old bread and apples that had fallen from the apple tree, we played with sticks for a long, long time (the family uses wood pellets for their heating).
We had one somewhat stressful walk / hike in the rain. The weather on Tuesday was at least dry, but cool and cloudy. So, we headed to a sort of Nature Park and Trail, which had a lot of nature and science exhibits for kids...and an pond that had an underwater observation platform.
Lots of wooden stuff...including a dinosaur. And a nude statue. You would NEVER see a naked woman wooden sculpture in a kids park in the US. Minor cultural difference ;-)
Emily at a park!
Since Oma and Opa were there, Eva and I took advantage of the built in babysitters, and we went on a few hikes - something we very much love doing, and enjoy doing it as a twosome from time to time. This time, we went on a 20km hike from Eck to Kleiner Arbersee. There were about 8x 1000m peaks along the way (no chuckling, Colorado folks).
Each peak had a cache as well. Combining hiking and caching is tons of fun.
I'm pretty sure the kiddoes and the grandparents had a blast as well.
We still did hikes as a family. With Emily approaching 2, she's starting to get pretty heavy to carry. I think that she'll have to start carrying her own weight starting Spring. Thankfully, she's getting more interesting in walking herself.
Of course, there is a pretty popular bobsled course (Sommerrodelbahn) along one of the hiking paths. Quinn was a champ and hiked about 6km - definitely a record for him. He started getting a bit cranky at the end (understandibly), but we chopped up the hike with some nice breaks...and bribed him with riding the bobsled at the end.
He went down with Eva first - a course she's gone down since she was a child. I kidded with her and told her not to break. When it was my turn, I was the one that ended up breaking a bit. That course is FAST.
Apparently, when Eva tried to brake, Quinn forced the brake lever forward, to disengage the brake so that he could go faster.
Family pic along the hike.
We thought that Emily was too young to ride the bobsled. She was MAD when she found out that Quinn could go and she couldn't. Eva and I decided to give it a try. All the way up to the course (you have to take a gondola to the top of the bobsled course), she kept pointing to the course yelling 'rutschen' (sledding).
I thought she would be a bit scared with the speed and turns, but she literally vibrated with joy the whole way down. She might be a speed demon as well.
Nina joined us on Thursday for the remainder of the weekend...and we went on a half day hike to the Osser, which is literally on the German / Czech border.
The view from the top of the Osser.
Quinn loves taking pictures, and we let him use our small camera from time to time. Without us knowing it, he brought the camera into the bathroom while he was taking a dump (AA machen). When we noticed that both Quinn and the camera had disappeared together, we all chuckled a bit...curious about the results.
Thankfully, there were no pictures of male body parts or poop. But, I thought that this self pick while pooping was interesting. I'm also thankful that the camera didn't end up with the poop.
Hiking with Tante Nina.
There was a cache along one of the hikes we wanted to do. So, we packed the headlamp for Quinn, and he and Nina found it together.
I love pics that show Quinn in this sort of mode.
Emily actually fed me some of her ice cream.
Quinn eating ice cream.
A typical Bayerwald hotel and cafe. The weather finally got super nice by Friday.
Family pic.
Emily grabbed Quinn's backpack...and it actually sorta fits.
So...that is the end of vacation for a while. We had another great trip to Bayerwald, and had some great quality AND quantity time with the kids. Next time, we just hope the weather is a bit better.
Did I mention that Monday is a public holiday in Germany ;-)
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