Dear Blog Fans,
This is a very short blog about when we where at the München Main train Station because we took the U-Bahn.
This is ICE bahn wich we traveled on.
cool isn’t it?
Long, long ago my mother had a hair dressing salon in Heilbronn. A few shops further down was a book shop, run by Frau Preis. As luck would have it, Frau Preis was a client of my mother’s and I must have been one of Frau Preis’s best clients. Whenever I was at my mother’s shop during the week and could sneak over to the book shop I would buy some books and asked Frau Preis to put them on ‘the bill’ and then on Saturdays when Frau Preis had her hair done and the time came to pay, she probably hardly ever did as she just presented my mother with my bill.
Frau Preis had a daughter about the same age as I and who spent quite a bit of time in her mother’s shop, just as I did. While we weren’t close play mates, we have known each other for ever.
Many years later, while at Medical School, Bettina travelled in New Zealand and visited Andrew and me there for a few days.
Over the last few years we lost contact a bit but luck would have it that Bettina wrote an email three weeks ago when I was still in Hamburg and so we were able to meet a few days ago. Bettina lives in München and we met on our second day there.
That was really nice, if short, as Bettina and her family were on their way to Hamburg to visit her in-laws for the holidays.
We were grateful for a lovely evening spent together and thanks Claus for the deliscious Frikadellen (meat balls), potatoes and vegies. We thoroughly enjoyed our evening together.
Bettina has a ten year old son (which meant lots of boy toys about the house) and better still…he is a hockey player.
Tessa and him spent a couple of hours hitting a tennis ball around in the lounge with hockey sticks and I am very grateful that none of their Christmas decorations had to suffer any ill effects.
Tim und Tessa playing hockey in the lounge
All children got a chance at hiting the ball for a bit.
The boys liked the flags lying around and insisted on having them in the picture.
Claus, Bettina and Tim
This is Ben working hard on his blog…
Ben fully focused on his writing.
Ben working at Pascale’s kitchen table.
Today I met with old friends of my mother’s and I, Elke and her husband Sigfried. I last saw Elke when she visited New Zealand a few years ago, so it was really nice seeing each other again.
Elke had done some research and found this amazing place called ‘Experimenta’. It’s a building over mulitiple stories for children and those young at heart. On each level are different areas fully interactive.
Tessa and Ben had a really good time there. Sadly Nick couldn’t come with us that day as it was his turn to be unwell. He had been sick during the night and stayed with Pasclae and Michael at home, resting. Thanks again you two!
Tessa tryin out one of the exibits.
This was in the music section
They even had props for movie making there, which Tessa and Ben misappropriated.
After two hours experimenting and watching a show on all things fire (during which I learnt that the match stick as we use it today was invented in 1847…isn’t that amazing? Not many inventions have stood the test of time, unchanged for that long!) we went to the ‘Winterwonderland’, which was a small Christmas & winter orientated food market with cosy wooden huts.
There was a craft table set up inside the hut for children which Tessa and Ben took advantage of while I had a good catch up session with Elke and Sigfried.
Too soon it was time to leave again with Pascale picking us up…I have a lot of ‘Wiedergutmachung’ ahead of me for Pascale and Michael. I will drive you all around Auckland next time you are there!!!
It was great to catch up Elke and Sigfried, although short. I am sure our next trip to Germany won’t be as far away as this one has been.
I can not believe that there aren’t any photos of Elke on my camera. I know for sure I took some…I honestly don’t know what happened to them. That’s a great shame!
Ciao
Tanja
After my get togther with the girls Pascale picked me up with Ella and Grosse Tessa in the car. She then drove us out to Tripstrill, a wildlife park about twenty minutes out of town, where Michael with Kleine Tessa, Nick and Ben were already waiting for us.
I remember going to Tripstrill when I was a little girl. Well, to be honest I can’t actually remember it, but I know that I did because we have photos of me there with my Oma, feeding the bores.
So on arrival Grosse Tessa was surrounded by hungry does and deer. When it’s warmer lots of people come during the day and feed the animals, but on the colder days they seem to be grateful for any visitor with a box of food. Thing was that we didn’t actually have any food…
We also watched the ‘Greifvogelschau’ and that was very impressive. They had an eagle there and falcons. The keeper was very knowledgable and the children were caputered by the birds’ flying skills.
Der Weisskopfadler (rechts)
Michael und Ella
Those inviting wooden huts.
As always we found some Kinder Glühwein to drink but this time we didn’t have much luck with food. So we went to a ‘Gasthaus’ instead and had Schnitzel and Pommes Frites (French Fries). The cold weather really invites one to eat and drink
Pascale and Kleine Tessa
One of the things that was very high on my ‘to do list’ in Heilbronn was to meet up with my old girl friends from way back when I was in my last two years at school and a few years following until I disappeared to the other side of the world.
There was Simi (otherwise known as Ernie), Caro (otherwise known as Trudi), there was Ingi (known as Gerti), Pat (always known as Pat) and myself (known as Tilly). I really can not remember why we had all those other names…somehow I think Simi was responsible for them.
There was also Stefan all those years ago, as the only boy (and loving it) but very sadly he was away that very weekend and so he wasn’t part of the fabulous catch up that Simi organised. Uli was also missing, she lives in Munich and with Christmas only a couple of weekends away, she simply couldn’t make it.
Simi organised us all and Pat invited us to “Insel Hotel”, the first address in Heilbronn, a hotel her grandparents built and her and one of her sisters now runs. We occupied a place in the lobby, which looked lovely and freshly renovated, and we were far too loud for our elegant surroundings…
Pat had reserved a table for us.
Pat setting up our lunch for us.
Caro and Ingi at the lobby table.
Ingi listening
Strongly encouraged by the free flowing champagne we were soon laughing loudly, adoring old pictures of our younger selves and having a delicious lunch of Maultaschen and the very best potato salad I have eaten in Germany this far.
From left: Pat, Ingi, Simi, Caro and Tanja
Yummy food.
It was really, really lovely to catch up with such good friends, with whom I had somehow lost contact over the years,and pick up exactly where we had left it, ten and twenty years ago. No small talk was needed and we were soon discussing the wrongs of this world and our personal issues and challenges.
Simi and Caro…I love this photo.
What a blast!
I had an absolute blast that morning, which of course was only possible because the amazing Pascale and Michael took it on board to look after my children for half the day. Thank you I am really grateful to you both.
Simi, you did so well to get us all into one place at one time, thank you for that.
Pat, your are a wonderful hostess, thank you very much for your generosity that morning.
On our way home.
I really do hope some of you might make it to New Zealand one of these days.
I loved seeing you all
Tanja
xxx
I love the coat Simi.
I am actually writing this in the train on the way to München (Munich), using ‘notes’ . Apparently there is WiFi in this train, but I seem to have trouble connecting, although being logged in. Never mind, I will update this onto the blog at Armin’s house.
We had such a great time in Heilbronn and I would like to thank Pascale, Michael, Ella and Kleine Tessa for their amazing hospitality. Nothing fazed them, even when we fell over like flies, getting sick in a two day rhythm. Luckily it only lasted for 36 hours each, however Tessa is right next to me now, on the train, looking pale and ill. She has a plastic bag on her lap….(today’s update…she never used the bag and we made it to Munich).
On the first day in Heilbronn we all went to the city, had a look at the Weihnachtsmarkt and made sure all the major landmarks, like Killianskirche and the Rathaus were still standing, which they were!
There was even a Merry Go Round…
Oh, one is never too old for a merry go round.
Slightly crazed look on horse and rider!
At this stall one of the dolls suddenly started speaking to the children…
The two little ones were quite enchanted by the talking doll.
This horsing around took up quite some time with various formations of riders.
On one of the mornings Nick and Grosse Tessa even went to Kindergarten with Ella and Kleine Tessa. Ben stayed home and rested that day, as he had been ill the night before. Nick and Grosse Tessa quite enjoyed it there, apparently they spent a lot of time building a stable with blocks and plastic horses and other animals.
That afternoon we took a little trip by car to the next decent sized ‘mountain’, Stocksberg, and went sleighing. It was only a twenty minute car ride and the higher we drove the whiter it turned outside. Once we came out of the car we needed to put on what seemed endless layers of clothing. Pascale had supplied snow trousers for everyone, we all had ski socks, fleeces, ski jackets, hats and gloves. Quite a mission to get dressed. It was clear though that it was needed as it was bitterly cold outside.
The weather really couldn’t have been any better.
Then the fun started with all the ‘bobs’ and the wooden sleigh. Ah no, before the fun started we actually had to walk/stomp/climb up the hill, then the fun started.
Oops, that wasn’t meant to be here again.
Uphill…
Nick, Kleine Tessa und Grosse Tessa had made it up ahead of Pascale, Ben, Ella and I. Suddenly Kleine Tessa came towards us on one of the bobs and while she was trying hard to break, it didn’t quite work and she drove straight into Ella and Pascale. Kleine Ella had her nose hurt and had to cry which was very sad, as she never quite recovered on that hill that day.
Before I could take all of that in however, Nick came towards Ben and I, equally unable to stop and I literally went flying through the air, landing face down in the snow. Ben was also knocked over and neither of us was very impressed with Nick.
Ella, Pascale and Ben
Ben loved the ‘bob’.
We went all the way up regardless and once there, had a great view, beautiful sunshine and an amazing slope. It was steep and very fast. The children had a blast, well except Ella that is, and as Pascale had provided us with gingerbread, lollies and hot Kinderglühwein we were kept reasonably warm, too.
We are really glad we did that trip as the snow has mainly melted since then. We are still optimistic however that Bavaria and München will provide us a show of white.
Will stop here and play some cards with Nick and Ben. Tessa is asleep, plastic bag still empty…
Wow, this has to be the longest that I have been off line for a very long time. Well, we arrived in Heilbronn on Monday, which was six days ago and many things have happened since.
By far the most of them fun and great, but Ben, Tessa and I all got sick as well, hence the long-ish break.
After a week in the romantic Ilmesmühle it was an alltogether different experience to be in a very new house here in Leingarten. Pascale and Michael have built a lovely family home a couple of years ago and as visiting Kiwis we can find many things to remind us of home, nicely mixed in with the local Christmas decoration…
Images of Aotearoa and x-mas happily married next to each other
Tiki, Koru and Kiwi
Pascale and Kleine Tessa
The five children all get on well with each other and as there are two ‘Tessas’ we have ‘große Tessa’ (big Tessa) and ‘kleine Tessa’ (little Tessa). Ella, the youngest at 3 years, really enjoys playing with ‘große Tessa’s’ hair and had made sure in a previous phone conversation that she hadn’t cut her hair off…
Ella loves playing with ‘Große Tessa’s’ hair.
We have a car full of children…loaded to capacity so to speak.
You may remember my raptures about the German windows in a previous blog…well, here it’s the shower that has me swooning. (Mind you, the windows are super cool as well). In our guest bathroom the shower has a double door and when I close it the doors make a wooshing sound and I feel sealed off from ‘the outside world’. Ben noticed them immediately as well and commented that they are like the doors on the ICE train. The shower is big, comfortable and very inviting. I love my time in there!
So, there is a little insight into our time here and I will catch up more tomorrow.
Bye for now
Tanja
Dear blog fans,
Last week Nick and I were playing along the frozen dam in front of our friend’s house, which is an old mill. Nick was smashing the ice with a pole and I was sweeping the little bits in between the bridge gaps. So I did the most dangers job and then I tried to reach a far away piece and it was too far away and I lost balance and fell in to water at -3C. That is FREEZING. My mouth was open and I tried to comunicate to Nick but no words came out oh no poor me.
Nick helped pull me out of the water. My Mum helped to take my clothes off because I couldn’t move much I was so cold. My sister Tessa fetched a towel and warm blanket for me and I sat in front of the fire to warm up. Then I had a hot bath.
Missing you all,From Ben
Again we had to say sad ‘good byes’ today. We had a wonderfully relaxing week with our lovely friend Holger at his home, Ilmesmühle. The week went by very quickly and we are taking with us many special memories and moments.
The children really enjoyed their first week of no pressure and responsibilities since leaving Auckland and certainly made the most of it.
The mill was a place full of nooks and crannies waiting to be found and explored. Sometimes the children were gone for two or three hours finding new areas and they played imaginatively with what was on offer. Harry Potter featured strongly during the week and Ben was a particular fan of the trap door leading into the cellar…
The train was a bit delayed and it was cold in Fulda that day.
Here we are at Fulda train station saying farewell to Holger. We were all sad, but also know that we will have a re-union at some stage, and have lovely memories to take with us.
We had to change trains once in Würzburg for which eight minutes were allocated. I should have listened to my wise aunt who has worked for the Deutsche Bundesbahn (German Rail) for a couple of decades, and who had advised me to perhaps change the train trip and go via Stuttgart. While this may take a little longer she thought it would give us more time to change train. As it happened we were late leaving Fulda and we then missed the connection and had to wait for 1 hour 45 minutes.
In the end that wasn’t as bad as what we first imagined as we whiled away our time eating. Holger had made us a lovely picnic with carrots, mandarins, mozzarella/tomato/basil baguettes (Leberwurst for Nick) as well as plenty of chocolate bars too. We managed to eat all of that and then the children spotted a sausage stall and we shared a big ‘Bockwurst’ (a bit like a Frankfurter, but bigger and tastier) on a baguette roll. They all really liked it and decided to have one more, then another and another after that. So we had all of Holger’s picnic and then four enormous baguette rolls with Bockwurst.
That didn’t stop us having a big dinner of Maultaschen (German Ravioli type yummies) and salad that Pascale had expertly prepared for us.
So, here I am back in Heilbronn…let the fun begin…
Tschuessle
Tanja
