Week 3: Frohe Ostern!
The girls spent Monday through Thursday at a “back-up” childcare facility (which we told them was “Camp”) right at the Marienplatz. LMU and other public institutions provide employees 30 days of free childcare per child at this center. To think how much easier life with little kids would have been over the past 7 years if such a think existed in the US. The center was quite nicely setup with an indoor play structure and treehouse, craft stations, and lots of delicious food (I think the girls had “pfannkuchen”- pancakes- every day). They also went on excursions around downtown including, we later found out, to the Eisbachwelle (see pics later on) in the English garden. Eden was complaining that her legs hurt (which we dismissed) only to find out that she had walked almost 3 miles that day!
We celebrated the end of the week at camp with some gelato in the Viktaulienmarkt. The Viktualienmarkt is a permanent open-air market just adjacent to the city-center and is filled with delicious food stands, produce and flower stalls, hand crafts, and specialty items like honey, mustards and every sausage imaginable.
In the spring they have beautiful Easter wreaths and crafts, including these handprinted Easter eggs to be hung on the “osterstrauch” (the Easter tree- guess we’ll have to get one of those!). We each picked out our favorite egg to bring back home.
On Friday we visited the Hellabrunn Zoo in Munich, which took about 25 minutes to get to on the U-bahn. It was one of the only places open on (Good) Friday and was pleasantly uncrowded. We walked over the Isar River on the Thalkirchner bridge, which houses the city’s “love locks.” I explained to Eden how they symbolize never-ending love and she declared, “oh! well then I should put one up for me and Eleanor!” Eleanor is our next-door neighbor, bonus daughter, and big sister figure to the girls. Eleanor and Eden have an especially close bond and she is VERY missed right now.
I can’t say I was super excited to go to the Zoo (we’ve been to SO many zoos!), but it was actually a ton of fun.
The zoo itself is a giant nature preserve and was extremely pleasant to walk around. The exhibits are set up in such a way that it’s easy to get a good view of the animals (it’s surprising how often that ISN’T true in other zoos) and, in some cases, an EXTREMELY close view. This is not photo-shopped! This big guy came right up to one side the enclosure and let out a BIG roar (which scared the crap out of Hads).
Eden spent about a third of our time with the Shetland ponies, calmly whispering to them and feeding them grass. Our horse and pony-obsessed girl was in her element.
There were several cafes and biergartens spread throughout, most of which were situated right next to a giant playground so parents could rest, have a cappuccino, and keep eyes on their kids. I’m continually impressed with how family-friendly Munich is—all biergartens/breweries should have playgrounds attached!
The indoor cafes and souvenir shops were built in the Bavarian style- how CUTE is this one? Poor Hads wasn’t feeling well so didn’t get to fully enjoy the zoo.
We ended the day with some Italian food in our neighborhood with the Sloan fam. There are several restaurants within a 5 minute walk from our apartment and we hadn’t yet tried this one. We may have won the record for the loudest visitors they’ve ever had!
Since the Sloan family came on Easter weekend (again, HUGE deal here), we only had Saturday to explore the city. We started the day at the Eisbachwalle in the English Garten, which is actually in the corner of Bogenhausen (our neighborhood). The Eisbachwelle is the biggest and most famous city center surfing spot in the world (I am skeptical that there are many competitors) and was pretty amusing to watch.
Of course we made a stop at the kinderspielplatz (sorry if half this blog is devoted to pictures of my children playing on European playgrounds) and then walked over this pretty bridge to get to the Japanese Tea House.
The kids were delighted to see these cuties up close.
We then made our way through the Hofgarten, which was so much prettier than when I was there in December. Hadley finally figured out that we’re going take a million pictures of her on this trip and has gotten into posing. She always brings the party!
All of the kids have been getting along really well!
Next up was the Residenz, the former royal palace of the Wittelsbach monarchs of Bavaria. We skipped the palace tour and opted to see the Treasury, which contains the crown jewels, ivories, and goldsmith’s work from over 700 years of Bavarian royalty. Eden was so into exploring the Treasury and stopped to look at each and every display. This kid has been a phenomenal traveler so far. She walked over 12,000 steps on this day and had a great attitude 90% of the time (which may have been more than some of the adults!). I’m getting a glimpse into what life with bigger kids look like and it’s FUN.
Eden and I thought these looked like the sword of Godric Gryffindor.
We then grabbed some gelato and headed over to the Viktaualienmarkt to rest before going out to a traditional Bavarian dinner. 7 out of 8 of our meals were excellent (and one person got a huge plate of raw beef- oops). The girls love schnitzel (aka the german chicken nugget).
Girls woke up to some Easter treats and spent the morning playing with their goodies. Our landlord’s dad came over the night before to replace our oven and brought the girls stuffies and a bottle of Prosecco for Jake and I as “Easter gifts.” How nice is that?! Several neighbors have been leaving little chocolate bunnies and eggs outside our door for the girls all week. There were may pieces of the Munich puzzle that worked out perfectly and the apartment situation is *definitely* one of them.
After a lazy morning we rode our bikes over to the Kleinhessleoher See (the only lake inside of the garden). Our neighbor Andreas lent Jake his bike with this kid seat on the back for Hadley. She talked his ear off the entire ride! Eden is getting stronger and more confident in her biking abilities and was able to ride on several busy streets with elevation change, etc and was happy as a clam. It helps that she pretends her bike is a horse (named Willow, if you’re curious).
Striking a pose in front of the Seehaus biergarten! Gives off UW Madison terrace vibes and it’s safe to say we’ll spend a lot of our summer over here.
We rented a pedal boat to explore the lake. The girls relegated Jake and I to crew members while they served as the Captain and First Mate (guess who was who?). We heard a lot of “ahoys!”, ay-ay mateys, and PEDAL FASTER!
Sloans on a boat!
The Sloans came over for Easter dinner, which included a few traditional german Easter dishes (colorful boiled eggs, spargen- white asparagus with a mustard dressing, and the Oster lamb!).
Cultural Observations:
- Schedule: We’ve noticed the german work/school day (and all subsequent events of the day) start an hour or two later than they do in the US. The U-bahn seems to be the most crowded between 9 and 9:30 and 6 and 6:30. We’ve also been in completely empty restaurants for our 5pm meals and have seen several restaurants don’t even open until 5:30 or 6:00. I can only imagine what people would think of my 9pm bedtime!
- Quiet: My children may be the loudest people in all of Munich. We were on the subway at 9am, which was filled with people headed to work and you could have heard a pin drop. Our apartment building is also SO quiet (even with a 2 year-old living downstairs). I cringe to think of our neighbors reactions to Hadley’s meltdowns because her juice cup is NOT FILLED TO THE TOP!!!!
That’s all for now folks! We’re on the train to Prague as I’m typing this. We hope everyone had a nice weekend and look forward to hearing from everyone!