Stewart's sister Carrie and her husband Ken came to visit us in Germany. They traveled without kids for their 25th anniversary. Stewart and I were very happy to travel around with them and see Germany. Our first stop was Freiburg, Germany. This is Freiburger Münster, the cathedral of Freiburg. Construction of the cathedral began in 1120 and completed in 1330. It is the only Gothic church in Germany. In November 1944 a bomb raid with more than 300 bombers destroyed all the houses on the west and north side of the market, the church survived. The windows had been taken out of the spire before the raid. If they were still in place they would have been destroyed by the vibrations. The church became a cathedral in 1827, when it became the seat of a Catholic archbishop.
We walked through the market in the plaza. Carrie bought us some strawberries and raspberries. The strawberries were unbelievably good.
The boys loved the child size car. It took Cassidy a minute to realize it was attached to a motorcycle. We had to drag Zachary away, he wanted to get in.
We then drove to Furtwangen im Schwarzwald near the center of the Black Forest. We walked through the Deutsches Uhrenmuseum (German Clock Museum). I am always a little wary of museums, the boys like to run around and touch everything. The museum is also fairly small, so their voices would easily caarry throughout the museum. But as we were paying, the museum clerk gave each kid a treasure hunt book. The book was in English and they had to walk through the museum, looking for different clocks and watches and learn something about them, to fill in the puzzle. I had a great time with the kids going around, teaching them about different clocks and seeing how they work. Thomas and even Zachary had fun hunting for the next clock, or piece of the puzzle. At the end of the hunt, there was an old workers time clock that the kids could punch their cards and see how long it took them to complete the puzzle. The kids then took their stamped puzzle cards to the front and were able to pick out a postcard as a prize.
We still had daylight, so we kept going. We visited the Black Forest Open-Air Museum. This was the perfect place to end the day. We spent the late afternoon walking/running around old farmhouses. This museum gave us a look at the lifestyle and traditional folk life in the region.
There was a lot of reading and we learned a lot about the houses and living conditions. We also had a good time exploring the dark rooms and staircases. This museum offers various demonstrations like making cheese and butter, milking goats and such. We just got there too late to see any of those. But the up side was we had the place to ourselves.
On the way back from the bathroom, Thomas found the goats. He spent a lot of time picking clover in the field across from the goats and carrying it over to them. It took a while, before he was brave enough to pet them. When Cassisy and Zachary found us, they too had to join in. Then
Zachary got a bit too excited and ended scaring the goats away.
We had a great time as you can tell. We probably would never have visited this museum if it wasn't for Carrie and Ken and a little help from Rick Steves.
We then drove to Furtwangen im Schwarzwald near the center of the Black Forest. We walked through the Deutsches Uhrenmuseum (German Clock Museum). I am always a little wary of museums, the boys like to run around and touch everything. The museum is also fairly small, so their voices would easily caarry throughout the museum. But as we were paying, the museum clerk gave each kid a treasure hunt book. The book was in English and they had to walk through the museum, looking for different clocks and watches and learn something about them, to fill in the puzzle. I had a great time with the kids going around, teaching them about different clocks and seeing how they work. Thomas and even Zachary had fun hunting for the next clock, or piece of the puzzle. At the end of the hunt, there was an old workers time clock that the kids could punch their cards and see how long it took them to complete the puzzle. The kids then took their stamped puzzle cards to the front and were able to pick out a postcard as a prize.
We still had daylight, so we kept going. We visited the Black Forest Open-Air Museum. This was the perfect place to end the day. We spent the late afternoon walking/running around old farmhouses. This museum gave us a look at the lifestyle and traditional folk life in the region.
There was a lot of reading and we learned a lot about the houses and living conditions. We also had a good time exploring the dark rooms and staircases. This museum offers various demonstrations like making cheese and butter, milking goats and such. We just got there too late to see any of those. But the up side was we had the place to ourselves.
On the way back from the bathroom, Thomas found the goats. He spent a lot of time picking clover in the field across from the goats and carrying it over to them. It took a while, before he was brave enough to pet them. When Cassisy and Zachary found us, they too had to join in. Then
Zachary got a bit too excited and ended scaring the goats away.
We had a great time as you can tell. We probably would never have visited this museum if it wasn't for Carrie and Ken and a little help from Rick Steves.
1 comment:
Jenni, you do such a great job with your pictures and comments. You could rival Ric Steves anytime. What a great way to remember you sightseeing trips and the joy of your children visiting these places. Wow! I am really impressed with your abilities!!.
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