The World

While in Regensburg, we made our first purchase of a picture for our wall - the Giant World Map! It has prime position on the wall by our front door and the girls and us spend MUCH time pondering "where in the world ....". To the family, you will be very happy to know that they can point out the precise location of "Uncle Colin in Sydney; Michael & Mandy and ... in Cape Town; Our old house in Joburg; Granny & Grandpa in Sedgefield; Granny and Grandpa from Zimbabwe who now live with Aunty Darryl in Durban; Uncle Rick in PE; Uncle John & Ronnie in California; and even their favourite Mulan in China"...

Spring has arrived

Easter is truly a turning point for the weather. Within a week, it went from barely 10 degrees to a constant mid to high 20s. The trees are all covered on blossoms and the whole country is really beautiful.


During the week-ends that we are in Plzen, we spend time out of the house enjoying the newfound freedom of not wearing 10 layers of coats and scarves. Our river is really stunning and it is a great spot for the sunday afternoon picnic ....

The view from our back and front balconies below:

The girls are getting very proficient at skating (although Sarah still finds it easier to be dragged everywhere :) and even Colin has been cought by the skating bug and has found his "wheel-legs". Skoda Park is brilliant on the week-ends and is a real hub of activity. The girls take the chance of playing in the "sandpit" which is the volley ball court when there is no-one playing, or they take up their posts as umpires.

Letter from Granny

Letter from Granny-in-Zimbabwe-(who-now-lives-with-Aunty-Darryl-in-Durban) - Gee we really have to find new names for the Grandparents - it is getting very complicated differentiating one from the other these days ....

"The main purpose of this is to send along, what may appear silly, a little theme that wafted around my head at the time. Since sleep has been dodging me so successfully - as to appear the norm and almost to be a thing tangible that I should be able to get a hold of, decided it would lighten my heart to transfer it onto a bit of space:

Once upon many months and a few days ago there were two beautiful little princesses that visited a house in Zimbabwe where their Granny and Grandpa lived. They brought their parents with them.

At this house there was quite a big pond with big fish and little fish and flowers and frogs. There were baby frogs too – some that had only tails, called tadpoles, some that had tails with little legs, called tadfrogs, and others that only little legs, called little frogs.

Now these little princesses - whose names are Amber and Sarah – were very kind and sweet and thoughtful to the baby frogs (those with only tails – tadpoles, and those with tails with little legs – tadfrogs) They scooped them out of the deep water of the ponds and put them into their own tubs where they would be safe and grow up to be big frogs. They gave them their own food from the ponds so that they would have their lunch and supper. So these were super spoilt frogs-to-be. And they did grow up. And they jumped back into the big pond and croaked nicely for Granny and Grandpa.

(And I must tell you a little secret – Gran and Grumps loved the sound and will always remember that Amber and Sarah gave it to them)


Also at that time – many months and a few days ago – there was not a lot of water. None came out of the taps. Only out of the borehole. Into a little paddle pool for playing in, and into a bucket, which went into a bath, for bathing in.

Now, one day Amber and Sarah (because they were kind and sweet and thoughtful) to save their Mum & Dad the bother of bathing them, and save using the bath, and save using soap, decided that they would short circuit the routine and bath in the bucket. So they climbed into the full bucket and splashed and splashed and cleaned themselves so well. And their Mum and Dad were so happy.

Sarah and Amber loved Arthur the parrot and they gave him all his bestest food and they talked to him and made him happy.

And they loved Maxi, the little dog. They stroked her gently and tickled her tummy and gave her lunch and they made her very happy.

And they came to stay with their Gran and Grandpa and gave them hugs and sat on their laps and had breakfast with them and climbed into bed with them and brought their parents with them and made them exceeding happy.

They are true little princesses.

(And I must tell you a little secret – your Gran and Grandpa love you both very much)"

Easter 2007

The Easter traditions here are far more elaborate than any I have come across before. Firstly, from about 2 weeks ago, the Easter decorations appeared in all the stores. It is something like the elaborateness of christmas decorations, but replaced with easter eggs of all colours, shapes and sizes; Easter bunnies; and elaborate hunting baskets. At school for the last month, they have been coming home with all nature of arts and crafts related to easter.

The first bizzare tradition that I learned about is that *don't immediately phone women's lib* on Easter morning, the boys run around trying to beat the girls with sticks!!!!

In the picture above, you will see the willow branch whip. They select the new willow branches and plait them into a whip, generally with a very intricately plaited handle (unlike the one above). Then, the boys get to chase the girls and for every girl they touch they get ribbons and then that is translated into eggs when they get home. The theory behind this is that the willow branches signify fertility and new growth, and being hit by one will give you fertility and good fortune.

With the girls being with their Teacher Hanka during the afternoons, she has initiated them into some of their cultural crafts. They planted "easter grass" together for the easter eggs to hide in. They dyed blown eggs and coloured them beautifully and then they get put on a stick with ribbons. They even came home with dyed and painted hard boiled egg remains in their lunch box.

On the Saturday before easter sunday, we took a day trip to Prague and Easter celebrations were in full swing. In the squares the market are kitted out with all the easter goodies and the town was busling. Below are some of the photos of the Easter Market, including the trees adorned with easter egg decorations.

When we got home on Saturday evening, I had got the girls a few Easter decorations and gave the story that we had to create an Easter path from the front door to the girls' bedroom so that when the Easter Bunny came, he would know where to go to give them Easter Eggs. In the morning, they were awake way earlier than any sane human being should ever be and burst into our bedroom displaying some of the hidden eggs which they had already snuffled out. We then were forced into action with cameras and had to make sure that none of the photos included mom/dad who still looked very just-woken-up-too-early-in-the-morning and the couple of shots where we had snuck into the background have been censored.

Below is about half of the egg loot which the girls had uncovered - they were still finding some of the last remains well into the evening. There is enough to keep them on a chocolate high for the next couple of weeks.

Day trip to Prague

Pics ....

Rural Germany & Sarah the Glass Blower

On Monday Morning, after the now customary coffee on an old-town-square, while the girls chase pigeons or sticks around the fountain, we headed off into rural Germany in search of a glass factory near the Czech border. After we got off the main freeway, the breath taking views were around every corner. This area of Bavaria, pretty much from Regensburg to the border is known as Beyerischer Wald (Bavarian Forrests).


Throughout the whole area, there are castles scattered about as well as traditional glass blowing factories. We picked the biggest one that was on the map and set course for it, arriving somewhere close to lunch time. According to the tourist pamphlet that we picked up at the hotel, there was supposed to be some live demos of the traditional glass blowing crafts here and it took us a really long time to find it. It turned out to be tucked in some old wooden hut at the far corner of this "glass factory town". There was a kiln in the middle of the room and a bench along the wall with all the tourists watching eagerly from the edge.

(Let me deviate for a while ... The whole trip, our two girls have been a complete hit. They have been given gifts by passing locals on whim just because they look so cute.) So, on entering the little wooden hut, I could see the glass maker noticing Amber & Sarah, pulling faces at them occasionaly, getting great reactions from them on-cue. So, when the time was right, he requested that Sarah be his little helper for his demo. After the German didn't work so well on her, he switched to a very basic version of English and was delighted to extract from her that he had such an exotic a helper as one from South Africa (of all places). Well, Sarah did us all very proud. She navigated the glass blowing sticks like a natural!

She even managed to blow into the pipe on cue.

In case you are wondering, the finished product of her labour was a large glass ball and as reward for her efforts, she came home with a glass horse which has a very proud place on her bedside table.

Walhalla

Sunday morning happened upon us slowly as any well-bred Sunday morning ought to do, and to add to its already sublime arrival it brought with it no fixed plans or expectations, simply, like quantum physics, only potential. I'm not exactly sure how we decided to go there, but as the babies were putting the hotels toy cars through their paces and the parents discussed what to do with the potential of the day while, savoring another of those good croissants, we came upon the trip.

We eventually cleared the routine of getting out of the door of the hotel after 10am and headed off to Walhalla, or Valhalla if you can't sprechen. It's a short trip out of Regensburg and we were there in 20 minutes or so. On approach you can see the temple from the road high up on the hill overlooking the Danube, even from far off you can tell its going to be a spectacular.

I think it was the first day the place was open to the public after its winter hibernation, and there was still quite a bit of maintenance going on - scaffolds and a crane etc, but apart from having to hide the beauty of a modern scaffold from a photo behind a tree or side frame it didn't mar the experience much at all.

Babies off the beaten path on the walk up to the temple.

Walhalla was conceived of by Ludwig I of Bavaria in 1807 when he was still crown prince. This was about the time when it wasn't really all that fashionable to be Germanic because everywhere there was a cherman there was Napoleon knocking the stuffing out of him and annexing his boundaries. Still, Ludwig, filled with pride for die faderland wanted to build, not a monument but a temple to the great ethnic German people who had contributed significantly to the world either in peace or war. Kind of like a Nobel temple for Germans.

Although Ludwig couldn't do anything until he was crowned king 35 years later, he did commission, and have made a whole stack of busts for Walhalla, which, along with the rest of the initial ensemble went on display for the opening of the place.
Just walking the hall, its amazing to see how many famous people the Germans have contributed to the world. Really, some of the greatest writers, thinkers, poets, humanitarians etc. (Adolf didn't crack the nod if you're wondering - I did check)

The front facade of the temple - unfortunately there were no trees to hide the lovely scaffolding and formwork 50 metres up on the roof here... but the carving up there is of the return of power to the Germans. It took 8 years to complete!

Walhalla is built on a steep slope going down to the river, and they had to build up 3 huge levels to provide enough level ground on top for the building, all in stone and hundreds upon hundreds of steps to get to the top.

The temple design is patently influenced heavily by Greek architecture and I think they did a grand job of the interpretation... this is a view from the back of the temple along the outside of the one colonnade, Danube visible down below in front. You can also see the sides of the big stone slabs that I was talking about above...

Wife and angels in the same colonnade as above... stunning!

This is what it looks like inside - well, just one shot, busts and plaques up on the walls, with the 6 Valkyries (these were the ladies who admitted you to (the Germanic) heaven - Walhalla if you had the misfortune of snuffing it in battle). You had to die a glorious death naturally, not any old death would do. What was interesting was learning what each of the Valkyries represent - they all represent victory, but attained through different means. For example, through great sacrifice and suffering, through swift and decisive defeat of the enemy, etc. So, I guess, depending on what the circumstances of your demise were, you got to heaven via a different Valkyrie.

On the way out we wend our way into the little village of Donaustauf for a bite to eat, and, happening upon a quaint local establishment ordered things we knew very little about in the quest for some traditional cuisine.

This is Hayley tucking into German sausage soup of some kind where the "soup" is substantially vinegar... If you think the smile looks forced you know why ;)

The babies, on the other side of the table from their grimacing mom, are far safer with the infallible schnitzel and chips - Amber has recently taken to pulling silly faces every time we point a camera at her, so, no... we didn't force-feed her a bit of appetizing vinegar-soup-sausage!

After lunch, we put Hayley's tongue on a stretcher and went up the hill behind the restaurant to an old Roman castle ruin. Fascinating place - huge as ruins go, absolutely huge. I love these old places, imagining what it must have been like...

The place is called "Burg Castle". An original name I thought - must be because its a castle on a... berg..? Anyway, it's been there in some shape of form since 500 BC!

Just inside the ruin there was this gigantic wall, I took some photos of it, struggling to get the whole thing into frame, but it just looked like any good old wall - so I added some pink babies at the bottom so you can see how big it actually is..

Flipping enormous!

Just past the big wall... this bit, when looked at from the other side...

Was obviously the quarters of someone important - you can still see the old plastering, recesses, domes and so on - a stark contrast to the rest of the place which is, as you can see, pretty much rock au naturale.
This is a drawing of what the place used to look like in the 1800's when it was still in use - magnificent.

The entire place is now in the middle of a woodland / forest, probably wasn't like this when it was in use coz trees are good places for bad guys to hide behind when they're shooting pointy things at you... nonetheless very pretty for us looking at it today...

Sarah doing 90 down the tree-lined road...

Regensburg, Germany

Ok, so we get back from Karlovy Vary and already the breakfast table discussions are around "where to next week-end". You just gotta love it!

At this stage, it is pretty much the first name that pops into our heads, that is where we go. Someone mentioned to me in passing that Regensburg is a pretty little town in Germany, not far from the Czech border, so that becomes the destination for a long week-end break. I have to admit, I had never heard of the town before then and on doing the basic internet research find myself getting more and more excited about the trip to the little town that has the remains of a Roman Fort dating back to 900AD and a town that was untouched by the world wars and remains pretty much in tact, as-was for the last few hundred years. Our next logistics discussions are around how to travel there. As with the rest of Europe, once you are at a destination, there is no need for your own transport as the public transport systems are so jacked (and generally because within the small towns, everything is in walking distance anyway). And even so, the public transport to get to the town is equally as efficient. Doing the sums we decided to rent a car for the week-end (the smallest Kia you've ever seen - the backpack hardly fitted in the boot).

With Colin's now very trusty and heavily relied upon travel-mate-GPS-thingy, we navigate flawlessly with only an occasional "stay on the right!!!" out the town of Plzen on Thursday midday and onto the freeway to Germany. Crossing the border was a non-event and we arrive in Regensburg at rush-hour. We circled the hotel a few times trying to work out where the parking was while attempting to decipher German road signs. After our last run in with an "ein maal strasse", we are ever so cautious and had the nerve wracking feeling that we were driving up wrong ways constantly. After unpacking at the hotel, the first evening was spent non-eventfully browsing the mall across the street in the vain hope that the Germans have heard of Marmite and got distracted with buying new running shoes.

Friday morning we geared up with city maps and strolled into the old town (one block away from the hotel). We had no set course or plan, but followed whatever caught our eye first. As we came into the old town, there is a green belt that surrounds the city. We followed the path and as it was still early morning (about 9am), there was a very crisp, fresh feeling about with birds chirping that really set the tone for the morning. The girls came into their own once their feet hit the grass and the hit the ground running. They found a fountain and a kiddies play park and we let the morning idle past as we strolled through the park.

As it turned out, we were walking around the Royal park that surrounded the very large palace of Thurn & Taxis that has more rooms that Buckingham Palace. It is still in use today and Princess Gloria spends her time between Kenya (of all places) and here.

After strolling around the outside of the castle, we found the entrance and since the information and tours were only open from 10:30, we decided to leave the tour till later (it was still only 9:30). Meandering through the old town was like walking through a maze. The streets narrow down to a single alley that a bicycle would have trouble passing through to large double lane streets that are all paved and where pedestrians have the right of way. Even after 4 days in the town, we were still able to find a little back path that we had not strolled down yet, each lined with quaint shops that beg you to stop and browse at the window for a while.

According to the story of the town, it was wealthy in the 1700s as a main post along the trade route and the wealthy families built large houses each with towers to boast of their riches. Now today, each of these towers has large clocks on them and you can honestly never be without the time in sight - and even more amazing is that they all tell the same time.

The buildings are very striking and similarly to Karlovy Vary, they are all painted in bright bold colours that beg to be photographed.

At around 10am we idled into a square in front of the very intimidating St Peters Church with it's spires that are visible from miles around and sat down to enjoy coffee in the sunshine while Colin took the opportunity to try and capture the church in film - not an easy task. We sat in this courtyard for a good hour watching the tourists come and go and the day getting progressively warmer (notice that these are probably the first photos you have seen of our heads without beanies!!!)

Below are the steeples of St Peters.

Unlike other trips, we came reasonably unplanned and unprepared as far as the tourist sights were concerned and mostly just happened upon the attractions by chance. We knew that the sights were somewhere in the town, but did not plan specific routes and paths to get to them. This was the one example. We saw a bunch of tourists madly photographing this building and it dawned upon us (like a sledgehammer) that this was the site of the remains of the Roman Fort (Castra Regina) which began in Regensburg in 179 AD!

Ok, history and sightseeing aside. My absolute favourite-favourite was the ice cream cafe in Neupfamplatz. We made a trip past it nearly every afternoon. I think the girls enjoyed it too :)

Our next discovery was the Donau River (Danube) and the Old Stone Bridge (built in 1135) which you can see through the archway (and yes, we were brave enough to cross it).

We meandered along the bank of the Danube amongst local students eating pizzas and spent some time feeding the ducks. We then had lunch alongside the bridge at the oldest sausage restaurant dating back 500 years. Lunch consisted of a plate of saurkraut with 8 grilled sausages - don't be deceived, it was really very good and tasted much better than it sounds. The girls didn't even venture a taste at the saurkraut but guzzled the sausages and bread rolls.

Crossing the river (yes, along the old stone bridge built in 1137) the two girls are fully engaged in conversations of national importance. Something about a puppy riding a horsie and the mommy that was very brave and could swim - Sarah has taken to remembering her dreams with vivid clarity and creativity.
Mom following behind ...

A note here: We have been in search of a world map since we got here and as you can see below, we are now the proud owners of a VERY large world map that is already stuck on our wall by the front door and is the only picture on our walls so far (apart from the girls artwork).

After crossing the main part of the river, the river forks into a side stream with an island in the middle. This is a favourite spot for students with their pizzas and radios and we joined in the lazy mood for the afternoon, spending it by the banks of the river - Colin taking photos, me reading my tourist guides and the girls playing, with the most beautiful view of the old town across the water ....

As the sun dipped down on the horizon (probably close to 7pm) we headed back across the bridge to find a spot for supper. Amber and Sarah amused themselves at the table by drawing on the paper serviettes - Sarah has just mastered the number 8 and was proudly showing us all her 8's and SARAH's that she had drawn.

Saturday was a very laid back day. It started at the mall because Sarah had walked holes right through the soles of her only 1 month old shoes and needed a new pair.

By the time we got into town, it was nearly lunch and the fountain with the bratworst hotdog stand looked far too tempting to pass by. The girls amused themselves by chasing pigeons around the fountains much to the amusement of all the onlookers.

After lunch, we strolled back to the Thurn & Taxis palace and did a tour of the museum (jewelry, china and carriages) and then did a tour of the palace itself. The tour was in German, but they provide English tapes of the tour - wait for it ... - on walkmans! Can't remember when last I saw one of those. Unfortunately, we had a very uptight German tour guide who was very intolerant of the 2 under 5's of the group. It was a 90 minute tour and they had to be completely silent. Even though they were the most well behaved I have probably seen them on a tour, the occasional whisper of "what's that mommy" got a telling off by the guide. But never mind, we made up for it with them afterwards with a big slice of Chocolate cake each at a coffee shop in town.

After supper at a traditional restaurant, we walked back to the hotel, dreaming of what we should do the next day.