There's Nor way we can a-fjord this place!

I hope you like terrible puns! Anyway, Rob first brought up the idea of going to Norway to visit the fjords about eight years ago. I started to plan a trip, and got sticker shock and put it on the back burner.  From time to time I have begun planning this trip again, and gotten sticker shock and run away again. Norway is so expensive. We have a travel budget, and it was hard to commit so much money to such a short trip, but we finally took the plunge and flew to Oslo to start our Norway in a Nutshell tour.

 

We arrived on Friday afternoon and dropped our bags at our airbnb apartment before heading to Frogner Park.(That sounds like it was easy to do, but it wasn't! It involved a $60 bus ride from the airport, followed by a long walk to a subway station, where we paid about $50 for a 24 hour transit pass, followed by another long walk. Thankfully the days are long in Norway at the end of May.)

Frogner Park is filled with sculptures made by Gustav Vigeland.  He made a deal with the government in the 1920s that if they would give him a posh studio and place to live, he would spend his career beautifying this public space. He generally sculpted out of clay and then cast in bronze, or utilized a group of stone carvers to create the finished products.  The fountain pictured above shows men metaphorically bearing the burden that holds the source of life- water. All around the fountain are trees teeming with life- like this one brimming with babies. Others show people in various stages of life until there are just bones fertilizing the tree of life at the end of your circuit around the fountain. (My interpretations anyway.)

 

Up the hill from the fountain is the Monolith.

 

This is the view across the bridge toward downtown from near the Monolith.

 

And here is the Monolith itself. It took 3 stone carvers 14 years to complete, working 6 days a week. It is about 46 feet high, carved into a single piece of granite and shows 121 individual people.

 

On the stairs all around the monolith are simplified human sculptures in various poses showing human relationships.  My favorite, which I didn't get a picture of, is of a woman down on all fours. Her braid is being used as a bridle by two toddlers riding on her back. I know the feeling.

 

The bridge is lined by 58 bronze sculptures further illustrating the human condition.  The most famous is this angry boy. The story is that Vigeland gave the model some chocolate, and then took it away to get this reaction. I know this feeling too.  (Apparently people rub his one hand for luck?)

 

After we had our fill of outdoor art, we found an outdoor cafe in the park and ordered some pizzas and enjoyed the fresh air.  It was about 8 or 9 pm by this point and beginning to drizzle.  And we had a long trek back to our apartment yet.

 

But there is always time to stop at the playground, right?

 

Riding the tram back to the apartment waaaay past bedtime.  Little did we realize this super long day would not be the only one of its kind on this trip!

Burg Eltz

One of the best things about living in Germany has got to be waking up on a Saturday morning and thinking, "We have nothing to do today... let's go see a castle." So yesterday that is what we did. I had been wanting to visit Burg Eltz for a while, but it is closed to visitors for half the year, and we had just never made it there. It is about an hour and a half drive from our house, and Rick Steve's has named it his favorite castle interior in Europe, so I knew we had to go there eventually.

 

The 20 minute walk from the car park to the castle is part of the fun. (There is also a shuttle option.) You walk all downhill through the forest until you come into sight of the castle. It is very Hansel and Gretel feeling. The kids picked flowers, caught bugs, and we were even treated to a view of a snake on our (all uphill) way back to the car.

 

First view of the castle.  

This image used to be on the back of the 500 Deutsche Mark bill.

 

Burg Eltz is one of only a few castles in Germany that has never been destroyed.  Even more amazingly, it has remained in the ownership of the Eltz family since the 12th century (over 33 generations!)

 

We bought our tickets and waited for the next English tour to begin in this courtyard. It is so pretty.  I love the stonework, half-timbered portions, lanterns, turrets.  Seriously adorable.

 

Sadly, no photos are allowed inside.  I stole the two above from the official Burg Eltz website. The tour takes you through a bedroom, children's room (with crazy old fashioned toys,) kitchen (with crazy cookware,) bathroom (with a toilet flushable with rainwater collected on the roof,) ladies room, dining room, chapel, hunting room (somebody really liked to hunt bears and elk,) and a few others that I am not remembering names for. 

Our tickets also included a visit to the treasury, which holds antiques, dishes, and the armory. And notice the fresh flowers on the table? Apparently, the "Lady of the house" makes sure that there are always fresh arrangements throughout the castle for her visitors (aka all of us tourists.) Isn't that just lovely?

 

"Have fun storming the castle!" 

After our tour we enjoyed some bratwurst, soft pretzels, and pommes frites. The food was tasty and surprisingly affordable for a tourist destination.

 

Burg Eltz is definitely going on my top ten castles list. 

(I have never actually written a top 10 castles list, but maybe I will!) Come visit us, and I'll take you to see it. (Also, when did Charlotte and Toby get so tall?)

making allowances

I don't want to come across on this blog as bragging or trying to look like I have it all together, when clearly I do not.  This has always been (for nearly 10 years now, holy smokes!) a place where I store the things that I want to remember, where I share our experiences, travels, and small victories with our families and friends, and where I can tell myself that I am not doing absolutely everything wrong.  With that in mind, I'd like to share our latest scheme for teaching the kiddos about money.

Over the years, we have tried several different things: just handling the money for them (after all they are pretty little yet,) paying them for doing certain jobs, paying them a general allowance based on a short list of jobs, buying them a thing that they want and having them "work it off" to pay for it afterwards.  But none of these has felt like it was really helping them to develop a sense of earning and saving money in the real world. We also have tried (sometimes) to have them pay 10% tithing on their earnings and this has involved a lot of fiddling with pennies and been dreadfully tedious to keep track of.  But we think it is terribly important that we teach them how to handle money, and so we keep trying to find a better way.

Then in January I read this blog post by a Mennonite blogger that I follow.  It seemed like a workable concept for us, with just a little bit of tweaking. (I made my own simplified account books for each child, we give a 1:1 exchange rate on every currency, and I am the "banker.") The best part of this system is that it involves little to NO CASH.  Just like in the real world.  Ha!

On the first of each month, I write in their allowance as a deposit into their account. They receive the number of dollars that their current age is. We have not implemented her "waiting period" as our kids are rarely in stores and for souvenirs on trips that just isn't practicable. We also have the flexibility of having them pay their tithing when we have cash on us for them to do so (whether that be once every two months or whatever) as we can easily see when they last paid their tithing and help them to calculate what they owe.

I still have a "Jobs for Hire" board that they can access to earn additional funds if they desire as well. And don't think I'm a totally heartless Mommy; we pay for all of their needs- clothing, food, school supplies, etc and do purchase them each one small souvenir when we travel, and ice cream cones, and sports and dance fees, and have lots of fun family experiences. But beyond that, if they want something, they have to pay for it themselves.  (If we keep it up, as they get older and their allowance becomes larger, we may have them begin to pay for some of these items themselves.) With this system I can just pay for it and deduct it from their account.  So easy.

It has been gratifying, especially in the last month, to have some experiences with the kids that show me that they are thinking about money and starting to develop an understanding of what things really cost.  From Jake asking me the price of every toy he sees, and then deciding to NOT spend his allowance because we are going on a trip in a few weeks and he wants to save it for then.  To Charlotte asking me to order her Harry Potter Book 5 on Amazon, because it is cheaper than the price in the store. To Toby, my sweet, mellow, quiet Toby, HAGGLING with a vendor in Slovenia and getting a price lowered from 5 Euros down to 3 Euros.

So, this is working for us, and I thought I would share our little success in case it might help someone else.

baseball and ballet

This Spring Toby is playing coach pitch baseball. He has the same coach as last year and is improving his swing and his fielding skills.

 

He plays on the Seattle Mariners team of 7-8 year olds. Their games are one hour long, which means they only play 1-2 innings.  Which is fantastic in my opinion. I don't look forward to four hour games someday, but I do love seeing my little Buddy all suited up as a little leaguer.

 

Charlotte has also made a return to ballet this Spring.  She had her recital last weekend and danced beautifully.

 

I took these pictures at the dress rehearsal. Charlotte really does have a natural grace to her that I envy.

 

I love seeing my little ballerina dance!

 

And Jake is back for more t-ball this Spring.  Last year, when Jake was just 3, Toby's coach snuck him on to Toby's team of 5-6 year olds and he blended right in, but clearly our 4 year old was not going to be able to keep up with the 7-8 year olds. So he has had to make do with developmental t-ball for the 3-4 year old crowd. It is really just a once a week skills thing, and he is super bored by it.  But he is still happy to have a team shirt to wear. This southpaw is ready for the big leagues, or at least actual t-ball, next year.

FHE gone awry

So, our church recommends that families carve out some time to spend together on Monday evenings, and that is referred to as Family Home Evening. We have only ever been sporadic about doing this, until this year, and I am proud to say that we have had FHE every Monday (that we have been home) so far this year!  That might not excite you, but it is a serious accomplishment in my book.  So our usual agenda goes like this:

Announcements and family meeting: This is when we look at the calendar for the week and determine who is driving where when and if the kids have any school projects or the grown-ups have anything they want blocked out on the calendar.  We also answer any questions the kids have about plans on the calendar. (For example, they would really like me to make a beach trip happen this Summer.) We rotate who is in charge each week (including Amelie getting a turn) and this helps them learn how to be in charge of a meeting and make assignments.

Opening song and opening prayer:  Yes, we actually sing with Rob playing the piano. The children are also learning how to lead music. I LOVE this and look forward to when Charlotte will be able to play the piano for us someday.

Lesson: The kids take turns preparing this as well.  We keep it short and simple- a story from the Bible or Book of Mormon and what we can learn from it.  Maybe a coloring page.

Treat: The kids look forward to this and I try to make something special, whether it be Smores, ice cream, hot cocoa, or carrot cake.

Activity: We do something fun together. This year we have gone for walks, played board games, played outside games like Petanque, and red light/ green light, sung songs, written a family constitution, done yard work, etc.

So that is Family Home Evening.

 

One lovely Monday night recently we decided to walk to the duck pond near our house and feed the ducks for our activity.  I brought the camera because I wanted a picture of the Fasanerie all filled with these white wildflowers.

 

The weather was cool, but Springy and sunny.

 

The duck pond looked very picturesque.

 

And we were even lucky enough to see a family of ducks with all of these cute little ducklings.

 

And then this happened.  

Immediately after I took the duck picture above, Amelie went head over heels into the pond... which was surprisingly deep at the edge.  This picture apparently happened in my rush to get to her.

 

Rob jumped in and pulled her out unharmed, though somewhat freaked out and a whole lot wet and smelling like a duck pond.

 

 

I had on a t-shirt and had a sweatshirt with me, so I took off the t-shirt and made a temporary dry dress for Amelie to walk home in. Just another memorable FHE!

Postojna Cave and Predjama Castle

I had never been in a cave before, so I thought the Karst region of Slovenia would be a good place to try that for the first time. This is where the term Karst actually comes from.

 

Postojna Cave is the second largest cave system in Slovenia, the first being the Skocjan Cave, and we chose to visit this one because of the location near Predjama Castle (just a few miles down the road) and because they take you into and out of the cave on a little train, which I thought the kids would enjoy more than miles of walking.

 

We rode for about 10 minutes at the beginning and again at the end through dimly lit passageways. And in the middle walked for about an hour with a tour guide through "the most beautiful section of the cave."

 

Hard to take decent photos in such dim light (no flashes allowed,) but irresistible to try because of the eerie and other worldly beauty.

 

Rob and I both liked these curtain stalactites. The effect is caused when thin wavy sheets of calcite form.  These look like they are blowing in the wind, because when they formed the river was still flowing below them causing a breeze to alter the shapes as the stalactites formed.

 

The different colors might be what surprised me the most.  I know rocks come in different colors based on their mineral composition, but to see such strong reds, whites, and dark browns forming so near one another was surprising.

 

After our visit to the cave and some quick lunch, we headed to Predjama Castle.  This castle is famous for being built into the mouth of a cave. This photo is just to show you how often our family photos fail. Jake and Amelie are both screaming about being forced to pose and Rob is cracking up about it.

 

The castle is really cool though.

 

 

If you look at the picture from the outside, you can see a cavern above the castle.  We toured the castle interior (it is very simply furnished and didn't take long to tour) and then climbed up above the castle into the cavern to look out at the view.  There are stairs that continue back into the cave and provided the castle with a secret "back door" when they were under siege that enabled them to sneak in supplies.

 

Oh look! There's a viking in Slovenia?!?

 

Hurrah!  I finally got a nice family photo!

We really loved Slovenia and if we have enough time here in Germany, we may try to make a return trip one day to do some more hiking or possibly even some skiing one day.

Lake Bled and Ljubljana

 

You've seen pictures of Lake Bled, right? Right?!?!

 

It is every bit as gorgeous in real life.

 

Happy, beautiful day.

 

You can ride a boat called a pletna to the island.  It is kind of like a gondola. 

 

Or.... you can rent a row boat and row yourselves. We thought that sounded like much more fun.  

 

Once out on the island, we had a picnic on the grounds and visited the church. Sadly, the church is being heavily renovated, but each kiddo still took a turn ringing the wishing bell.  The two big kids and I also climbed the tower while Rob got the required ice cream cones with the two little kids.

 

I couldn't let Rob have all the rowing fun, so I took the oars on the trip back to shore. I did grow up next to a lake after all, and I know my way around a row boat.

 

Here's the view from the other side of the island with the castle on the hill, and the mountains just peeking above the clouds in the background.  We did walk around the castle grounds a little one day, but decided not to take the tour.  Lake Bled was best enjoyed from the outdoors for sure.

 

 

Another day we drove to the capitol city of Ljubljana. Slovenia is roughly the size of New Jersey, so nothing we drove to was much more than an hour away.  Here the kids are standing next to the Dragon Bridge.  The dragon has been the symbol for this city for a long, long time.

 

We walked around the market and checked out souvenirs as well before enjoying lunch from a couple of food vendors.  I should have taken a picture of my burger, it was the size of my head.  Toby ordered one too, and Rob ended up having to eat half of each of them.

 

We rode the funicular up to the Ljubljana Castle.

 

It was perfect weather for enjoying the views and walking off a giant hamburger.

 

Ljubljana is Europe's Green City for 2016.  I don't know exactly what that means; but we don't particularly like cities and we could see ourselves living in this one. This is the view from the castle's highest tower.

 

From front to back this is the market hall, the Cathedral of St. Nicholas (was closed during our visit,) and Ljubljana Castle at the very top. I like Slovenian arcitecture more than I thought I would. I guess I thought there would be more Soviet sort of influence from the Tito/Yugoslavia years, and there is some of that. But mostly the buildings look a little Bavarian, and even a bit Italian, but cleaner, simpler, and less adorned. I really like it.