The worlds largest cuckoo clock

   It's wasn't exactly on my bucket list , but we couldn't be this close and not take enough time to go see the worlds largest cuckoo clock. So we found ourselves once again venturing into the Black Forest. This time it was much more scenic and interesting. We passed gorgeous green meadows dotted with pretty yellow flowers,creeks and and layers upon layers of wild flowers and many charming chalets. We got lost finding the clock so we added another hour to our drive, but hey this is going to be worth it. We got there with only twenty minutes to spare so we gave the lady our money . It only cost 4.20€ for all of us! Wow what a bargain for such a rare experience. We unpacked our picnic lunch right in front of the clock and I thought wow aren't we lucky? I mean how many people get to picnic in front of the worlds largest cuckoo clock? We sat there chewing down eagerly anticipating the action. The clock struck 2. A wooden bird about the size of a fox came out and said cuckoo. 

  Okay. There's more right? Now is when we see little wooden people dancing around singing happy little German songs or something right? We all sat there staring as the bird quickly went back into the house. Not another thing happened. Cole said " I just wasted twenty minutes of my life!" We all roared in laughter. We'll not every day can turn out super exciting. 

Dachau

    Yesterday wasn't exactly a chipper day but what do you expect when you visit a concentration camp? It's certainly not a trip to Disneyland, I had no intention of going actually but somehow as we got closer I changed my mind and we all decided it would be a sobering yet educational experience. 

  My first impression was bleak and grey. Close your eyes and imagine a rainbow with nothing but shades of green. It actually is quite beautiful isn't it? Now that is Germany everywhere you look. So as always with nature it's a gift from god that all people rich or poor can enjoy just by looking around. Somehow the nazis managed to create a huge space and take away even the color around them. It was strange to walk on the ground where the shoes of such cruel and hateful people walked and also where the cold and tired feet of innocent men suffered day in and day out. In one day I learned more about world war 2 than I ever knew and still I feel like don't understand it at all. I feel like that one day for the kids made up for three weeks of missed school at home. Tristan had been studying about hiltler in school now he has seen first hand the evil and hate he perpetrated.  Dachau was a men's camp, and not technically a death camp, but still it's estimated over 40,000 people died here. When the camp was liberated what the soldiers saw must have changed them forever. We saw a video about it and like all films on this subject it tore at my heart. What surprised me was the place that Jehovah's witnesses had in this memorial. There was a big sign telling about them .500 witnesses came to dauchau if I remember correctly. But when our tour guide mentioned the Jehovah's witnesses it really hit me. I knew that witnesses went to concentration camps but I just didn't expect it to be mentioned I guess. A young boy asked 

" why were the Jehovah's witnesses here, did they not believe in god?"

The guide answered " no they believed in their god Jehovah" 

What a funny question I thought. 

I found myself thinking that if we were a family living in Germany at that time Jimmie and my boys would all be here and I would have come here then sent off to another camp to decide if I should live or die, and all because we wouldn't heil hiltler and renounce our faith. Scary. But at the same time I was proud of my spiritual heritage.proud to be part of a group who peacefully stood firm and refused to be persuaded by the crowd despite the cruelest means of torture ,to give into peer pressure ,essentially, 

 If there were more groups who could persuade people to do the right thing no matter the cost this wouldn't have happened. 

  Walking through the gas chamber was the strangest saddest part of all. I have no regrets about going or taking the boys. Life can't be a happy dance all the time, and the fact remains that history repeats itself so it's best not to live in a fantasy world.  I hope the lesson the boys take away from this is to never allow groups of people to influence their thoughts or actions. The only thing we can trust is what's taught to us through the pages of the bible. During nazi germany all of these people followed the crowd fully convinced they were the sharpest , whitest, smartest tools in the shed. God is not partial. He loves all peoples no matter what race or color they are. It's a simple thing, a golden rule to live by. I've seen that from traveling around there are people that are wonderful in every country and usually a few jerks too. That's just the way it is. But our true colors are shown when suffering is a daily task. It left me wondering, how would I hold up? Would I be strong ? Would I maintain my integrity no matter the cost?  I certainly hope so. 

  

Tenting it

  After the excitement wore off from the cuckoo clock adventure we drove to our next destination in Germany near Lake Constance in the own of lindau. This is the first time we are staying in a tent,not because I'm humble or sporty, simply because all the mobile homes ( aka, trailers) were booked. Now mind you I'm battling a cold from hell, it's cold ,wet raining and throw in pms just for good measure. . Hmmm this should be interesting. We'll at first glance, it's not to bad at least there's beds and pillows. There's a curtain to divide the beds, I'm not sure why ,the kids were sure to remind us that no action should take place because that curtain certainly isn't sound proof. The bedroom are can be zipped off from a common kitchen living area complete with table, chairs, a small fridge stove and cupboards with all the dishes. Not bad. Still no toilet no sink. I'm not cooking I tell myself. 

  We head straight to the laundry facilities or I should say Jimmie does. At home I do 99% of the laundry, of course I don't work out of the home anymore so I'm happy to do it, so it's a welcome change to see Jimmie take such charge of the family's dirty underwear. He is really frustrated ,the machines buttons are all in German. I watch him impatiently open the drawers that hold the soap and fabric softener ( I'm sure he doesn't know what fabric softener is) and guess which container to dump 3 cups of soap in. I don't tell him he's just wasted 3€ of soap because that would just set him off. He tries  first to buck the system and see if the machines will run on less than the 2.50€ we've already been told it cost to run  the machine. When his plan fails, he starts frantically pushing buttons, all in German mind you. I'm pretty sure he pushed buttons like " extra soak" so long story short, the laundry took ten times longer and costly twenty times more than it should have and by the end of it I had to practically grab hold of him by the behind and keep him from shaking the machines to death to give him his two dollars back. Let's just say , I don't mind doing the laundry.

  After all of that we decided to go to eat dinner at the camp restaurant. It was actually really good and moderately priced. It's an awesome thing these camp grounds usually have really great food. Tristan and Brock ordered pepperoni pizza, we didn't look closely and notice it did actually say " green pepperoni" so when it arrived it was pizza covered in green pepperocinis ! I thought Brock ( my picky eater) was going to poop his pants! The look of shock on his face was priceless. He picked them all off. It's a good thing for them to learn to go with the flow. Anyhow after dinner beer and ice cream our bill was 70 € not bad for a family of five but none the less, if we do this every night could be a budget breaker so tonight I decided to step up to the plate and cook dinner In our tent. We went to the grocery store and spent 29€ To have breakfast for tomorrow , lunch for tommorow, and cooked a lovely dinner tonight. I made a simple salad with farmstand tomatoes, cucumber, herbed olives, basil garlic and some lovely cheese leftover from France. Tortellini with pesto ( also bought from a roadside farmer) was easy to prepare and just as good as our much pricier dinner out. And this is the beauty of eurocamping. It really makes this possible.  There is absolutely no way we could do this  for this long while footing the bill of a hotel and food out for five people. Now mind you at this moment,I have to pee like a race horse, it's raining cats and dogs outside of this fragile tent and the toilet is a good hike away, but you know what , it's okay. It's kind of an adventure , and eating our ravioli dinner on our plastic table tonight was cozy and comfortable and actually more memorable than any dinner in a fancy restaurant could ever be. 

The spooners

  Sometimes just when I think I'm going to run out of things to write about, life has a way of creating moments that my mind just wants to capture in words ,so that those moments never get lost and forgotten . Today was another one of those days. 

   It started out slow again, still wallowing in self pity from this cold. Jim went golfing and invited Brock along. He didn't realize he was invited to be his golf caddy and not actually play the game.but they had a good time anyhow, meanwhile the rest of us slept in and walked to the mediocre town for coffee and pastries. We went to a toy store where  we met a lovely German woman who happily spoke broken English to us. She was pretty adorable to visit with. I understood about 1/4 of what she said ,but I pretended to understand 3/4. I asked where the best place to visit the black forest was. In my mind, the Black Forest sounds so enchanting and mysterious. I thought Robin Hood came from the Black Forest. Jim told me he came from Nottingham forest. Whatever. I picture the making of fairy tales and round German women serving up Black Forest cake in their little fairy tale cottages with German dudes dancing around with beer in their hands clicking their feet to accordions. The lovely toy store lady told us to go to titisee . That's the name of the best village to visit and it happened to be where she grew up. 

   I found it incredibly disappointing. The drive their was frightening to start with. There wasn't anything spectacular about the forest. One thing we have going for us in California is beautiful nature. It's kinda hard to beat. The town itself was built near a lake, but compared to Donner lake ,near us there just wasn't much to write home about. It was a complete tourist trap and when a man treated me like I was going to steal wool socks from his cheesy tourist shop I was done. I was so done I actually told the guy I wasn't going to buy the socks now because he was so rude. To be treated like a thief is the most offensive thing to someone who values honesty more than anything. I thought ,well this is a crap day. Then we met the spooners.

   Our mobile home is situated on a nice grassy pitch with a neighboring mobile . It's laid out in such a way that it feels like we are the only ones here. Earlier in the day I spoke with our friendly neighbors and told jim we had a sweet family living next door. When we came back home to make dinner they were sitting on their deck. Jim was sent out to BBQ but this is jim. He made friends instead. Before long we had them bring their chairs over and park on our side of the grass. Claire was from Scotland originally and now living in England with her English husband mike and two kids Ben and Matt. Claire immediately charmed me with her sincere smile and friendly honest presence. She was hilarious! She taught me all about what is means to be a Scotsman. You see I learned that the weather is positively dreadful almost all of the time, so the people love comfort. They love to eat deep fried butterballs, literally, cuss like sailors, and drink like fish. I think I like Scottish people. She was so delightfully charming. She taught me the word in Scottish for getting tipsy is getting pished.  If i ever go to scotland and use that word i will impress the scottish people. She had an intense fascination with toilets. Yes that's right toilets of the world ,

and was quit knowledgable on the subject. She told me that when they built the train from London to France, men had proposed putting some sort of burning wood stove that the women would have to carry their feminine products to and toss in the fire to incinerate. A woman stepped in and caboshed that plan, but can you imagine having to carry your nasty renderings from womanhood and sit around a campfire with a bunch of other menstruating woman to get rid of the necessary things? For real? That's kinda strange and funny but like she said, men were in charge, to them it seemed legit.

   Anyhow we spent the evening with the spooners. Claire affectionately referred to her husband as " spooner" all night. Their kids were amazing, incredibly funny and eager to listen and share adult conversation. We had amazing conversations and Claire asked so many honest questions about our way life ,always prefacing with" I don't want to offend I just honestly want to know" 

   At one point she had me laughing so hard I passed wind on the hard plastic chair. I know it's not lady like to tell it, but it did happen. It vibrated across the deck like a jackhammer on concrete. Claire was to busy talking to notice but the look of utter shock and horror ,and the eminent laughter from her husband let me know I didn't get away with it. I was embarrassed of course but what are you to do? I asked cole to bring me the cherry brandy.

   People are such an amazing gift in life. At home we are blessed with the best friends in the world. But it never ceases to amaze me how many honest, sincere and kind people are out their waiting to befriend. I love traveling and meeting new people and getting their perspectives on things. I have a strong feeling we will see the spooners again, maybe a long long time from now,but until then they will always be a fond memory for us and the kind of people you just never will forget. 

Photo memories

A perfect date...

     Today after a slow morning and much apprehension as to what we all wanted to do we decided the kids needed some down time from sightseeing. They begged to stay at the eurocamp and just swim and play miniature golf here at the campground. It's this small safe little German town and so we decided it was a good place we could take off for a few hours on our own. We packed our picnic baskets and headed out. We found ourselves in some random nearby village in France. We are right next to the border so we can cross over from Germany to France and sadly not understand what the people from either place are saying. On our drive we saw a steeple from a church in the distance so that is how we picked the place to stop. We crossed over a canal and spied the perfect picnic location just under the bridge lay a perfect grassy area with a wooden bench built right on the water overlooking the fairy tale village with  400 year old wooden shudders and flower boxes and crooked wavy roofs. We sat by the water eating cheese we brought from luxembourge. Stinky cheese that smelled like dirty socks,but hey sometimes stinky cheese is the best. Unfortunately it tasted like stinky socks and left an aftertaste reminiscent of swallowing a rotten curdled ball of milk that fermented in a boys jock strap. Fortunately we had salami ,bread and of course my cherry brandy to help my cold. We wandered around the town in awe of the architecture with so many interesting things to gaze at. It was Sunday ,so most shops were closed and the only people were sitting in the cafés enjoying the nice sunny day and cool breeze. We wandered following the peak of the church steeple. We came upon a quiet empty street and were blessed with the most beautiful romantic accordion music playing. The sound was coming from above the street out of one of the barely ajar window shutters. Jimmie asked me to dance. I wasn't about to pass up this opportunity. . So there we were slowly dancing in a nameless town in a France ,on a nameless street ,dancing softly to the most angelic music coming from a nameless face. I felt his whiskers on my cheek and my whole body melted like ice cream laying in the sun. I married him when I was 18. People Have asked me , was I really in love? I don't know. Can you be in love at 18? I can tell you now 23 years later I am madly in love with my best friend. It's moments like this that make life worth living. Moments that if I was trapped under some massive building and fighting for my last breath that I would close my eyes and take myself back too. A moment like this makes a life worth living. 

    When we came back ,the boys were exactly where we left them. Still running up and down the ladder and cannon balling off the diving board. I went up to the trailer and they all came in laughing smiling and happy. They are becoming such great friends in less than two weeks. It's awesome to watch it happening. Jim told me today he overheard a really sweet apology from one to the other over something that happened some time ago. He didn't know what. He wisely didn't ask. Would this have happened at home? I doubt it. 

   Tonight I cooked that black forest ham and the potatoes and asparagus for dinner. Cole said prayer and he thanked Jehovah for this time together and how everyone is getting along and for the sweet brothers and sisters at the Kingdom Hall who were so kind and loving. Does that not melt your heart?  Before I served the ham I told the boys this is a really special ham and probably the best they will ever have. This came from the Black Forest where pigs live a happy life and we paid a decent chunk so don't waste any pieces. Brock dove in first. 

 " hmmm this is really salty mom"

Obviously poor kid has no taste.

 Tristan a few moments later" wow this is really salty"

Ghee have these kids never tasted salt or something? imbusules wouldn't know a delicacie if it jumped up and bit them in the nose.

Jim bit in. Next thing I know he's puking in the grass. He has some weird aspohagus problem so surely that's what causing him to puke.

I taste it. OMG!!! I'm not sure what we bought, but you may as we'll have gone down to the horse stable and licked a salt lick. 

 This totally brought me back to when I was 14. My parents insisted on spending all of our free time in a tiny coastal town in Oregon. By the time I was a teenager I didn't like it at all. I was bored to tears and had no friends my age there. This is how I developed a love of cooking. The one thing I enjoyed was picking blackberries. You could spend hours picking wild fresh sweet plump berries. I decided I would learn how to make blackberry pie. I combed through moms cook books and read all the detailed instructions on how to make the perfect crust. You can't let your fingers get to warm you know because they will melt the butter when your kneading the dough and you won't end up with flaky crust. So I chilled my water in the freezer and stuck my fingers in the ice to ensure a perfect crust. I invited my grandparents to come for my tasty creation. It came out of the oven looking perfect. I was proud . It was the most decatent pie I'd ever laid my eyes on. I watched proudly as my grandfather took his first bite. I was surprised when , rather than shower me the expected praise, he twisted and turned his face and hurled the perfect pie back on to his plate. Apparently I had used pickling salt instead of sugar in the recipe. Whoops.   So sometimes things don't go as planned. What Can you do? 

   As I write this ,breaking to blow my nose, the boys and their dad are having a fantastic game of baseball gone wild outside. Pretty great. What a good way to end the night.

Three countries in one day...

   Woke up feeling like I swallowed broken glass. My body aches and oh how I hate having a cold. Despite this we packed up our mobile,and climbed what felt like 7000 medieval stairs to the larochette castle. We didn't go inside but the walk was lovely and the view from up there was spectacular. We then drove to Luxembourg city. It is a beautiful city,with ancient ruins everywhere. It is sparkling clean,has one of the lowest crime rates and is the seat of the European Union. It must cost a pretty penny to live here also. We walked through one of the shopping districts and you could score yourself a silly Izod t shirt for 59 € on sale! Yikes!

  We headed to Germany our next destination. Driving the autobon was crazy with cars literally zooming by at 140mph. Jim and the boys loved it. I was glad to feel like I had been ran over by a truck and slept through most of it. We took a detour into France in the Alsace region. We visited a village wissenbourg. It was a charming village and oh how we love France. We stopped at an outdoor cafe for some local wine and cocoa for the kids. I went in to use the bathroom, or water closet as they call it. I saw the sign on door with w.c. Sign and went in. I tried the first door locked. I tried the second door and a slender tall man pushed through from the other side. Immediately I apologized and ran to the main door to look to see who made a mistake. As he was washing his hands in the only sink. He says " no it's for both " 

 Okay.. His room had urinals. I hoped something better would be in the next stall, I waited impatiently as someone took their time in the other side of the door hoping it wasn't a big burly man. A small woman came out. Meanwhile another man came in and went to the urinal in the stall next to me. I could see his feet. I sat down and prayed to god I would not fart. It's awkward enough using a public bathroom but atleast in America you only humiliate yourself with the same sex. We'll as Paul said " when in Rome"

  We went to a cheese shop in France a. One of my favorite things about France is dreamy creamy cheese. On our way to Germany we stopped at one of the many roadside stands where we bought some potatoes and asparagus to go with that black forest ham. We bought some Riesling for 3.50€ and some cherry brandy made straight from a local farmer. 

   The best part is watching the amazing transformation of the boys. They are getting along fantastically. At home they have so many friends, great kids and I love them all. But kinda like us with our friends they forget how to be together and be the best friends I know they can be. They have been laughing hysterically together and having a grand time,sometimes their boisterousness gets a little out of hand. Pigs almost beat them with my baguette but I didn't want to waste the bread. Despite the craziness it's wonderful.

   This experience is priceless.

A good place for schnitzel

Vianden Luxembourg

       today we visited another castle near us. Tristan and Brock took a day off from sight seeing so we had some special time with cole. There is a gorgeous little town with a huge castle called Vianden. This was not as authentic as the one we saw yesterday as it was restored in the 70s but the original structure dates back to roman times, then in 1000 they started building the castle. Now you can tour it and they also have an art museum in it. There was an entire room of Chagall paintings. I think they are very interesting. Jim is convinced he can become a famous artist after seeing them.

   The town itself was charming.  We went into the most incredible butcher shop that specialized in pork products. Oh my gosh that place smelled amazing like a smoky salty bacony heaven.  We bought a small Black Forest ham. The real deal, and some incredible looking bacon and salamis. Can't wait to eat those. 

   We walked over a bridge and chose the most off the beaten path inexpensive restruant we could find to try schnitzel . The woman who owned the place was from Thailand and at first we didn't think it was going to be any good, but we were wrong. She was an amazing cook who had clearly mastered the local cuisine. I never knew I was such a fan of schnitzel. Of course I am sure part of what makes it so tasty is these are not factory piggies abused and fed horrible chemicals. These pigs are roaming around this place called a Black Forest living the piggie life. Oh why do I live in America? 

  The woman who owned the place was named patty and she was sweet as they come. Since we left holland we have found the local people to be less friendly in general, but fortunately there are many immigrants from turkey and Asia to compensate. Also I wonder if it's there language that just doesn't have a friendly ring to it. We went into a pub yesterday and the lady behind the bar was quit frightening actually. She was large and in charge and we had the distinct impression she did not like us. She begrudgingly served our hot cocoas and all five of us sat down like five quiet scared children. One man at the end of the bar looked at us  compassionately with friendly large chocolate eyes. He spoke English, the only one there. He visited with us and helped us feel welcome. He said something to the burly butch bartender and it sounded like " yooch dan fffflike Americans gloff del caca" they laughed. I think he knew she was being rude and teased her. Even cole couldn't get her to smile at us. But I have to say she is the very first rude person we have met thus far. There's bound to be a jerk now and then I guess. 

   Tonight Jimmie and the boys go to Luxembourg city to the Kingdom Hall. I am catching a cold so I stayed back.  I am sad to miss out. The Kingdom Hall and our faith is what gives us all more family happiness, stability, hope and love than anything else in our life. The special thing about our faith is our unique brotherhood. We can walk into any Kingdom Hall in the world and this is our family. There is no racial or social class distinction whatsoever and it's such a cool thing for the kids to experience this first hand. Yesterday we drove by two women knocking on doors with book bags. We could tell by the way they were dressed they were Jehovah's witnesses. We stared just for a moment then pulled over, the one woman actually left the door and came over to us, as soon as we got out of the car she embraced us with such a warm hug. This is what I am talking about. She knew we were family just by the way we stared at her.  What does this? One word LOVE.  When we were in Belgium , (the night jim accidentally forgot to give us the the key )jim found our the sweet guy serving up the beer was raised as a witness. His seven siblings were still active but he wasn't. That's why jim stayed so long talking with him, come to find out he wants to come back. The next night jim met him again and he invited one of his brothers, so when Jimmie met him it was that same instant bond and now he was getting the inside tour of Brugge with two new friends. Pretty cool. We invited them to California I hope they come. Never miss an opportunity to open your home to foreign guests. You will gain so much more than you give.

Pictures of our accommodations, this is what it looks like when it cost 5€ to use a dryer and it's raining

Castles and enchanted forests

   Holland was full of bike trails. People everywhere rode bikes. Luxembourg has walking and hiking trails everywhere. You can literally walk miles and miles from one village to another. We parked our car in the little village of Beaufort. We toured a beautiful castle. One of my favorite things about Europe is touring castles. I love to touch the cold stone walls and imagine what hands have touched them before. This castle had a torture chamber complete with all the tools of the trade. I couldn't resist touching the spikes that were on the table that at one time plunged into someone's skin. The kids thought it was disgusting that I did that. It was actually , and kinda freaked me out after. Being in there was pretty spooky and when everyone left I did not like being in there alone. What sadistic creepy people invented this crap. On the other hand if this was the punishment for people who committed haneous crimes I suppose the crime rate was very low back then.

   Next we crossed the road and had a picnic and headed out for a hike. The grumpy teenager returned and didn't want to go when he claims he saw a tick on his arm. He wanted to wait in the car and went on and on how there were ticks and he didn't want to join us. We all convinced him hiking with his family was a better option and surely it wasn't a tick. A little down the trail I hear cole say. " I think a tick is biting my penis!" He opens his drawers and inspects. A few minutes later jim says " I think a tick is on my balls!" So here I am trying to enjoy this picturesque forest trail in this dreamy fantasy like forest with ancient stone steps and there goes Jimmie in front of me dropping his drawers inspecting his nuts. I think this all started when I made the mistake of telling them a story about my great aunt that my mom told me. Somehow she managed to get a tick in her vagina. It's bad enough to have one of these disease ridden nasty bloodthirsty bugs at all, but one in her vagina? This horrifying family secret has traumatized my family. We'll anyhow eventually they moved on from it and we ended up hiking over 4 hours. It was really awesome. I love it here. Brock said many times this is my favorite day. He is my second son and I love how he always appreciates nature. 

   On the way back thunder and lightening roared above us , rain started to follow and the creeks started moving faster. We were deep in a canyon so I wasn't to concerned and it was actually pretty exciting. The canopy of trees kept us from getting to wet. 

 Ate dinner three nights in a row now,at another Turkish kabob place. Still having the falafel wrap. It's so inexpensive healthy and delicious. I'm in love with the people from turkey! They are as wonderful as their food. That definitely will be on my bucket list of places to visit.

   Time to relax in my comfy trailer. I'll dream of forest creatures tonight I am sure.