Anyway, with those long weekends, I decided we should do some more exploring around Europe. Not because we "needed" a vacation with Barcelona having been just a few months ago, but because we can. After all these days off this month, the boys won't have any more breaks or days off until they finish the school year mid-July (!!). So, it was somewhat last minute when we booked our trip to Dresden. Because these are holidays all over Germany, and because we're a larger family, it was harder to find a hotel. In fact, I really couldn't find one for the long weekend of the 14th and 15th. And Jason has a work trip over the 25th and 26th, so that left May 1st if we wanted to go anywhere before the end of the school year.
So, we booked a hostel (hey, we're in Europe, we wanted to give it a shot!) and some train tickets. Dresden is about 2 hours by rail and we planned for a 3 night getaway.
Thursday, April 30, 2015
Travel day came and all morning I was feeling rather poorly, I was certainly coming down with quite a cold. I hardly had a voice and I was trying really hard not to be miserable. Essential Oils to the rescue! A good friend made a special delivery to the flat while I was packing and brought over her sizeable stash of essential oils to share. She told me what to use and how to use it. So thankful!!! I fear how much of a "vacation" this would have been without those. I packed while the kids went to school and Jason went to work in the morning of Thursday, April 30th.
I finished packing then rounded up the kids just after 1:00, stopping by the flat to drop off their backpacks, pick up our suitcases (and Jason!) and some quick lunchy foods. We walked to a more major train station about 10 minutes away and caught a train to the Hauptbahnhof (Main Train Station) where we waited to catch our 2:45 regional train. It was our first time to travel by this sort of train and we didn't quite understand where we could sit. There were different classes, of course, and then there was the option to pay to reserve seats or just wing it for free. Obviously, cheapskate over here opted to wing it. We were in the wrong spot at first but eventually figured it out and nabbed some seats all together with a table in our midst:
I brought coloring stuff for the kids and their iPods. It wasn't a terribly long journey. Dalton was into drawing "Fish Men":
And also something on his iPod which he was excited to show his dad....until he realized his dad decided to take a nap. :(
So he had to show someone else instead:
We got to Dresden's Hauptbahnhof and had to ask what was the best transport ticket for our family, figure out how to buy it, and then go hop on a smaller train to get us closer to our hostel. My phone didn't show us the extensive tram network when suggesting directions so, we did quite a bit of walking that first day with the kids running through dandelions to get to the Sunshine Hostel.
Now before you're all, "Eeek! A hostel?!?!" where you think of sharing bathrooms and sometimes even bedrooms...we actually stayed in a "holiday flat" which was completely private. We had two bedrooms, our own bathroom, a kitchen... Other than being quite a ways away from the touristy areas it was pretty great. The guy at the front desk spoke virtually no English. But, we'd been expecting that there would be less English there as compared to Berlin. No biggie. I managed to check us all in and we headed upstairs.
We had a bedroom for Jason and me:
A bedroom with two sets of bunk beds for the kiddos:
A table for 6 (those were the exact IKEA chairs we sold before moving to Germany):
And a nice living area with a TV and even some books and games:
It wasn't fancy by any means, but it was nice to have all the space. However, because it was a hostel, we were sent up with clean sheets and I had to make all 5 beds myself. (And no towels! We had to pay 2€ a towel.) I had to fit a flat sheet over the mattress and stuff the duvet into a clean cover and then do the pillows. With as crappy as I was feeling, I really wished I was doing something else but oh well. Even though we had a big bed, usually you'll find that a big bed here ('king' size-ish) is actually two 'twins' with separate bedding. And that's how it was here too:
As I was making the beds, the guy from the front desk came and knocked on the door. Remember, he really didn't speak English, but he'd prepared a question in English for us. I heard J answer the door and the guy ask, "I have a question: do you want breakfast tomorrow?" Now, we run into this all the time: when you attempt to speak the others' language, they expect that you'll also understand when they speak that language back, right? So, that's what happened: the guy spoke in English, and then in our we-must-soften-our-negative-response American ways, Jason was like, "We'll skip it. I think we plan to eat elsewhere." Which, if you think about it, is kind of complicated if you don't speak much English. So, from the kids bedroom I shouted up a more German-direct response of, "No thank you!" and Autumn, our little translator ran up and offered a "Nein, danke." Ha. Back to making the beds. And figuring out dinner.
I had told Jason with, as poorly as I was feeling, and having just "exerted" myself making all the beds (oh, woe is me!), I'd rather find a restaurant than have to go grocery shopping and come back and cook with as late as it was getting. But, we weren't able to find a suitable restaurant nearby. So...we walked up to a grocery store and walked back to prepare it at, like, 8:00 p.m. Jason bought himself a soup but the little tab opener thing broke off. And our kitchen didn't have a can opener. So, in an act of hungry desperation, Jason ended up stabbing a knife through the lid which then shot soup alllllllll over the kitchen and all over my face, hair, and clothes. It's funny now, but boy was I not laughing at the time. I felt like crap, remember, and honestly just wished I could be in bed rather than be a mom. As Jason cleaned the exploded soup up, I arranged some stuff for the kids and we had a very late dinner and got them off to bed.
Easton sleeps on the top bunk at home (and always has), so we let the little two sleep up top for a change:
And bedtime is when I discovered that the curtains in our rooms weren't going to do the best job of keeping out the light in the morning:
And sure enough, they were up super early the next morning. Not just regular early despite having stayed up extra late, but extra early. Great.
Friday, May 1, 2015
We had some breakfast in the room and got dressed. In the past, I've packed the kids in Ziploc bags to keep organized. Or I was really interested in the "skivvy roll" idea I saw making the rounds on Facebook a year ago or so...but I don't know what kind of Über-stretchy socks those people used. So, for this trip, I rolled all the kids' stuff up for one day and "secured" it by folding their pants' elastic waist around the bundle. For whatever reason, we called them "plops". So, they had a drawer full of 3 plops to choose one each day. :)
Our plan for the first day was to head to the Deutsches Hygiene Museum, and no, it's not about flossing and tampons, it's more of a medical museum with fun human body things and a children's section all about the 5 senses. Right up our alley, really. So, we hopped on a tram and headed over.
We were only allowed to take pictures in the children's part but there was all sorts of cool stuff like the transparent man and stuff about germs and birth and fetal development. The kids actually watched a woman deliver a baby on a video. I didn't see something like that until I was almost 12 and about to witness my sister being born so we had to take a preparatory class. And you certainly wouldn't find something like that just all on open display in the States. They weren't traumatized. Easton was horrified, however, by this giant bug model. Like, seriously sick over it. Go figure. Bloody baby squeezing out of a pained woman in all her glory vs fake bug. But whatevs. I'm glad they thought the birth was cool. It is cool.
They had another part where you could "battle" someone over who could be the most relaxed. You'd strap these electrodes to your head and try to think about nothing and whoever had the least brain waves would send a ball over to the other person's side. I am certainly the most anxious and uptight member of our family, but it also means I've got the most experience trying to relax....so I won every time. I also beat Jason in another part of the museum where you could test leg strength. My quads were definitely stronger than his. And he gets credit for not saying {out loud} how he's sure it's because my quads have to hold me up all the time and are used to working hard or something. Surely it's due to taking subway stairs two at a time with loads of groceries strapped to my back on a daily basis. Or always having another person on the back of my bike whenever I ride it. He wished there was a part on upper body strength where he was sure he could still take me. ;)
We ended up avoiding a couple of sections of the museum. One was a part on sexuality which was a little above and beyond our comfort level and there was one part of the museum that children under age 14 weren't even allowed in...so naturally I wanted to go in. But I didn't. We headed to the children's area instead for bunches of fun:
Before long, I was too hungry to continue much longer. My dinner the night before had been limited, as was my breakfast. I was starting to shake and be grumpy. So we left in search of some food.
But first we stumbled upon this Tarzan tree:
And this exciting skate park:
And then food:
We ended up at a Vapiano which is a chain we have plenty of here in Berlin. Pizza for the kids and pasta for me and J. And I got tiramisu as well. Because I was still hungry.
After lunch we wandered over to the Altstadt (Old Town). We mostly planned to just wander around and look at things. The boys found this staircase down to who knows what....it had angled glass there at the bottom but I still don't know what was down there:
The building just behind Dalton's and my head is part of the Residenzschloss (Royal Palace/Castle) and the building further back in the middle is the Katholische Hofkirche (Catholic Cathedral / Church of the [Royal] Court).
Random statue:
Climbing his way through Germany:
Fake bricks just painted on this flat wall:
And this is in the Stallhof (Stable Courtyard) of the Residenzschloss.
The Fürstenzug (Procession of Princes) which is on the outer walls of the Stable Courtyard where we just were. According to Wikipedia, this is the largest porcelain artwork in the world.
There were all sorts of horse drawn carriages roaming about the area, but this dude had a costume. He looked more colonial American to me but what do I know?
Apparently this lemon juicer building is the Hochschule für Bildende Künste Dresden (Dresden Academy of Fine Arts) but I must confess I had no idea till I sat to write this here post:
You may have noticed Dalton on my shoulders above? Sometimes he claims to have leg problems. And he really does start to walk weird. But I wasn't going to carry him all over. So here big brother gave him a helping hand:
That cute lil yellow building behind them is apparently the Coselpalais. Whatever that is.
You may be aware that Dresden was bombed to bits towards the end of World War II. Bits, I tell you. But, somehow these decorative statues on the Kunstakademie look way old rather than recently rebuilt. I dunno....
A lovely staircase at the Georg-Treu-Platz up to the Brühlschen Garten and terrace:
A statue of Gottfried Semper up there.
On the aforementioned terrace:
What a cute statue!
And in the aforementioned garden:
That is the Sächsisches Staatsministerium der Finanzen (Saxony Ministry of Finance) across the river behind them.
And this one in the background is Sächsische Staatskanzlei (the Saxon State Chancellery / Chamber):
I'm so tall!!! Look at me leaning in, even. :/
More from the terrace:
Elvis living statue:
And shortly after that, we walked down the stairs from the terrace to the Schloßplatz...Autumn had her hands in her coat pockets and on the very last stair, she stumbled and did a bit of a face plant. :(
Her nose began bleeding immediately. I thrust my camera at Easton so I could quickly tend to Autumn with Jason and E documented it:
As well as the small potential fire from a still-lit cigarette in this trash can:
Poor Goose:
Some more living statues, we gave the kids money to give these ones:
And they move as a "thank you":
Dalton was very excited to see her ear poke out under the wig...and it wasn't grey! :D
From there we decided to go see if we could check out the Grünes Gewölbe (Green Vault) in the palace which contains "the largest collection of treasures in Europe".
I still don't know what this flying car was about:
They only let a certain amount of people in to the museum at a time, so we bought tickets for about an hour later and went to get ice cream while we waited for our time slot.
Looking down the street while they snacked (I ate tiramisu at lunch so I didn't have ice cream), I could see this fancy looking dome through the arch there. It is part of the Zwinger.
Looking at the street while they snacked. Ha ha ha.
Slowing making our way to the Green Vault:
Made it!
We all got audio guides and listened and looked at almost too much treasures. None of us were super interested, it was more of a "because we're here..." sort of thing. One highlight for me, was Autumn listening intently to the audio guide and telling me, "That cup is filled with abominations" as a scene from the book of Revelation was depicted on a platter.
Then we decided we'd done enough boring grown up stuff and took the kids to a park we'd passed. It looked pretty cool:
They'd come shooting out of that slide!
After awhile we were past due for dinner. We walked across the street from the park to a place called Maredo which is technically a steak restaurant but we found some things and then rode back to the flat for bed.
Saturday, May 2, 2015
We hemmed and hawed all morning over whether a bus tour was worth it or not. Ultimately we decided that yes, we would do it. Jason and I brought our own ear buds, as that's one of the "issues" we'd read about on some bus tour reviews.
The boys sat in front of us and pretended they were listening to some head banging music. Eventually they got on their iPods. It's just not that exciting when you're 8 and 10.
After our tour, it was time for lunch. But, feeding our family is never the easiest task. The answer? The mall food court! Seriously, all 5 of us got something from 5 different places. Easton had a giant wurst on a tiny bun with hot mustard on the side. Dalton got a sandwich (the boy loves sandwiches). Autumn just got a Laugenstange which is this sort of long pretzely roll. I got a veggie auf lauf which, in this case anyway, was a sort of potato and veggie au gratin. And Jason got Asian food. Then, because the kids weren't totally full, we ran into the grocery store (also in the mall food court) for a yogurt for Autumn and some more stuff for the boys.
We left the mall and tried to head for the Old Town part of Dresden again but the mall was never ending, we just couldn't seem to walk around it, so we cut back through it and happened to stumble upon this promo thing for the Green Vault where they offered to dress Easton up like a knight:
They told us the chain mail on his torso was 12 kg (26.4 pounds) and the head part was 2 kg (4.4 pounds) plus whatever the sword and shield weighed. Sheesh!
It's no wonder they opted not to even try the chain mail on this Goosey Girl:
It seemed like they weren't necessarily going to offer Dalton a turn, but he was waiting for everyone else to go so patiently and quietly hoping for a turn. So he got one.
And finally we made it through to the other side of the mall to see these pretty views again:
That is the Frauenkirche "The Church of Our Lady" (although it's Protestant). We went inside. But I think we've been spoiled by the Berliner Dom and the Sagrada Familia because, while pretty, it just was not all that impressive. This church was one of the victims of the 1945 bombing and the rebuilt version is like, only as old as Easton. And, perhaps because of money or whatever reason, they sort of didn't go "all out" on this one. The "marble" is painted on. My mom's faux finished bathroom at home looks better than this:
And again, instead of elaborate carvings, they just sort of painted some supposed-to-look 3D designs:
The organ was legitimately fancy, at least:
And the former cross, recovered in the rubble:
We sat in there for a bit and moved on.
Another of those "how did they make this look so old" questions:
Attempting the very stairs where she face planted the day before:
We decided to walk the Augustus Brücke (Augustus Bridge) over the Elbe. It presented some lovely photo ops:
I made Jason stand higher and I'm still so much taller:
Crossing the bridge also provided some amusement...our rule when looking over such heights is that your have to keep your feet on the ground. Hence Easton's odd pose:
But Dalton was too nervous about his siblings to look over himself. And he couldn't handle Autumn not keeping both feet down.
"Both feet, Autumn!"
"What?"
Her "What's the big deal?" hand:
Taking matters into his own hands:
"Dalton!"
And eventually we made it over the whole bridge and down to the banks of the river on the other side:
Action shot!
Dalton's "treasure map":
After skipping stones and throwing rocks for awhile, we decided to head to the Großer Garten but we needed transportation. We passed the Altmarkt (and it's May pole!) on the way to the tram:
And then we were at the "Greater Garden".
Some slack liners:
Dresden will forever remind me of dandelions. There were so many "wishes" ready to be made and the kids kept calling themselves "snow team!" while throwing white fuzz all around. They were so entertained.
The end of cherry blossom season:
The lovely Sommerpalais in the park:
And then we took the kids to a playground in the park for a bit:
We finished at the park and rode the tram back to our part of town. We stopped at the grocery store again for a couple more things for dinner that night and breakfast the next morning.
Sunday, May 3, 2015
It was during said breakfast the next morning that Dalton lost a tooth. We didn't even know it was loose till the night before. He gets quite nonplussed when parts of his body fall off. Not like a "Hey look!!! My tooth fell out!" like most kids. He just put it on his schokocroissant covered hand and went "Here."
We packed up which involved cleaning out the fridge, taking out our own trash, and stripping all the beds. Then we checked out and walked the kids over to a nearby park as our train wouldn't leave for a bit but we had to be checked out of the hostel.
Autumn was desperate to get in that brown "pod" area but found it rather challenging. We refused to help reciting our motto of, "If you can't do it yourself, you can't do it." It made us look mean and lazy in the States but in Germany we fit right in (German parenting seems to encourage more responsibility and independence). :) Eventually our determined Autumn made it in there....buuuuuuuuuuuuuuut then she got too scared to come down the slide. She was holding up the line. There was even a grown up in there. So, her brother went to rescue her but she still didn't come down. And of course her whining is just coming out of the tube slide all magnified and loud. Goober. Eventually she came down and I made her take a break and settle down.
After a warm sunny morning at the park, we headed for the Dresden Hauptbahnhof again and found some lunch at this nifty buffet-ish place with a kids play area. I got a custom omelet, potatoes, and some fruit. Jason got a few things including a cold spargel strawberry salad. 'Tis the season.
After some pit stops, we hopped on our train. Much harder to find seats this time as many were reserved....but with help we noticed they weren't reserved until people boarded Berlin. So we sat in their 3 seats, Jason off on some random folding seat and Autumn on my lap:
On our journey, Autumn knocked over her drawing supplies and while cleaning up I discovered we only had 11 of our 12 colored pencils (could have lost it at any point since Thursday, however). But Dalton, who seemed to only be paying attention to his iPod, suddenly burst into tears and scrambled under the table insisting we had to find it. He wasn't sad that a color was missing. He was sad for the pencil all alone out there in this big world.
Yes really.
(And we never did find the pencil.)
Anyway, after a couple of hours we were back "home" in Berlin. Still a little crazy that Berlin is home.
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