Back to school and business (belated)

 

Toby and Charlotte on the first day of 2nd grade and 4th grade!

One of the benefits of writing this post so late is that I can tell you how things are going. So far, so good.  Charlotte has made a new best friend (who sadly will be moving in 4 months, sheesh.) And Toby is enjoying his second year of German immersion with the same group of kids as last year- one of the added benefits of being in that class.

 

And a week later, Jakey on the first day of American Kindergarten!

So far Jake loves school.  He loves buying his lunch, and doing art projects, and riding the bus.  He gets pretty annoyed when I pack lunches (I do that about half of the time, and they buy half of the time,) or pick him up from school as he doesn't get to ride the bus home.

 

 

The day after Jake started school, Rob flew to Utah for his sister Rachel's wedding to John.  We are so happy for them and wish we all could have been there, but I am glad Rob got to spend some quality time hanging out with his siblings (without managing jet-lagged kids) too! Congrats again to Rachel and John.

 

 

We are continuing with piano and viola lessons for Charlotte and Toby and trying a few new things this Fall as well. Charlotte has started taking art lessons twice a month.  She is enjoying the work so far, and it is the first "homework" that she wants to do!

  

And Toby decided to try archery.  It is a new offering this Fall and for ages 8-18.  The first week was all safety instruction and Toby was seriously disappointed, but once they started shooting he immediately changed his mind and now thinks archery is awesome.  The two coaches are both former drill sergeants, and run a tight ship safety-wise, which is great.  And if kids mess around or don't pay attention, they get to do push-ups.

 

  

And finally, Amelie and I have taken on a new role as well this Fall.  

I have started a Community Library for a local refugee camp and have been working there twice a week.  (And from home on cataloging and labeling books as well, all together I spend about 20 hours a week on library stuff.) It is a wonderful space for the camp residents to be able to gather, and donations and support have been overwhelming.  What might not be quite as obvious, is that it is also a really good thing for me. I quit working ten years ago, and have loved being at home with my babies, but this gives me a way to use my education in a meaningful way again... and I am loving that.

Happy Campers in the Black Forest

For Labor Day weekend, we made a last minute decision to go camping in the Black Forest.

 

We hadn't been camping in about seven years, and had recently upgraded our tent from a 3-4 man tent to this 8 man palace.  (Rob can stand up inside.) So we found a campground with a car free tent area, and headed out.  The campground, Müllerwiese, was pretty high up in the forest, but also just inside of a village.  It gave us the convenience of being able to walk to a bakery for breakfast, and to step onto a trail within five minutes.  Camping in Germany is a different experience, in that it is illegal to have a campfire (or open flame) within a certain distance of wooded areas. I was sad to not be able to use the Dutch oven, or make our favorite campout meals, but we made it work.

 

A little stream that feeds into the Enz river runs into the campground, and I was glad for the stream noises at night to cover up our neighboring campers' noises.

 

One of the activities we did this weekend was visit another Barefoot Park.  This one was actually free, and was pretty impressive.

 

Just walking through the forest barefoot.

 

It really is a beautiful area.

 

Slip sliding in the mud.  There were also very cold water pits, and various surfaces to walk on.  I took photos of a few of our "favorites."

 

The Pit of Despair, I mean pine cones.  Rob made me laugh as he kept saying things like, "Why are we doing this?  This is painful!  I don't understand the German fascination here!"

 

Pebbles weren't too bad.

Checking the progress on our Hobbit feet.

 

Broken glass anyone?

 (Rob's comment here, "Is tetanus not a thing in Germany?") 

It was a little torturous, and Charlotte came away with some blisters, but afterwards our feet felt tingly and great.  Also, there was an ice cream stand at the end of the trail.  How can we get that to be a thing at hiking trails in the US?

 

Another activity we all enjoyed was the Riesen Rutschbahn (or Alpine slide.)  Riding up the mountain backwards... 

 

And then sliding down to the bottom.

 

We all rode once, and then Amelie and I waited at the bottom to take some pictures while Rob and the big kids took a second ride.

 

Of course, we attempted some hiking in the Black Forest as well.  I didn't take many pictures, but we walked around the village, up into the nearest hills, and also along the River Enz.  Rob and I would have liked to do so much more, but the littles have short attention spans for this activity so far.

 

The last activity that we tried was Adventure Mini-golf.  This min-golf course was ridiculous.  We were given three different balls to use, and each hole told you which ball to use.  One was normal, one was heavier, and one was like rubber.  And the surfaces ranged from normal fake turf, to wood, stone tiles, or pebbles.  And there were sand traps, water traps, and crazy ramps. It was insanity.

Anyway, we plan to go back in the Spring and explore some more of the trails and other activities that we didn't get to try yet.  Even though it rained our second night in camp, we huddled up in the tent and the kids read books and played cards. We really love these opportunities to unplug and spend time together without all of the distractions and to-do lists of everyday life.

I can't believe we went to Russia

For those of us over, say 30 years old, going to Russia really didn't seem like an option growing up in the US.  I mean, I watched White Nights, and Baryshnikov doesn't lie. Even now, Russia's visa requirements mean that the only way we could go to St. Petersburg was with a cruise excursion, so that is what we did.

We lost an hour when we got to Tallinn the day before, and our excursion meeting time was at 7 am.  So that meant getting everyone up at 6 am, which felt like 5 am.  We had to go through passport control and that took time as well.  It was going to be a long exhausting day for our kiddos.  We could have left them on the ship, but they hated the kid's club, and we really feel strongly about traveling as a family and giving our kids these opportunities to see the world.  (In retrospect, we would have left them on the ship, though Amelie was the biggest problem and she wouldn't have been allowed to stay.)

 

So, all aboard the crazy bus!  The excursion we purchased was a city tour by bus with photo stops and visits to the Peter and Paul Cathedral and the Hermitage art museum.

 

Our first stop was St. Isaac's Square where we saw this monument to Czar Nicholas I. This was the first equestrian statue in Europe to have only two support points (the back hooves) and was erected in the 1850s.

 

This is located right in front of St. Isaac's Cathedral. This is the largest Russian Orthodox church in the city and was built over 40 years in the 1800s as well.

 

Next we made a stop by the Neva River.

 

Boys will be boys.

 

Then we arrived at the Peter and Paul Cathedral at the Peter and Paul Fortress.  We got there about 10 minutes before opening time which was perfect...

 

...because Charlotte desperately needed a bathroom.  Yes, these city buses have been converted to public toilets and connect directly to the sewer.  According to Charlotte, they are not very nice inside.

 

Anyway, back to our tour with tour guides Toby and Jake.  Our actual tour guide was from Kazakhstan and moved to St. Petersburg while they were both still part of the USSR. She was a bit much to deal with, but more on that later.

 

The Peter and Paul Cathedral was built in the 1700s and is famous for being the resting place of the Russian Czars- including the final Romanovs. It was so gold!!  And it is actually gold leaf, not paint.  Craziness.

 

On the front right is the grave of Peter I.

 

And in this room is the memorial and grave for the Romanov family.  In October 1917 the Romanovs were removed from power and in July 1918 they were all executed and buried in an unmarked grave.  Their bones were not fully recovered until 1991, after the fall of the Soviet Union. After that the remains were in a laboratory until 1998 while they were studied and decisions were made about what to do with them, and then they were interred here. In 2008 DNA testing was done to prove the authenticity of the remains.  The kids were disappointed to know that Anastasia did not survive.

 

Amelie taking nap #1 outside the cathedral.

 

Our next stop was a souvenir shop (of course.)  We didn't buy this, but it was fun to play with.  We were glad for the clean and well stocked restrooms.

 

STOP sign along Nevsky Prospekt. 

Rob was working out the Cyrillic pretty well, but this and Кофе Хауз (Coffee House) was about all I understood. Our tour included a "Russian Lunch."  We laughed when we arrived at a Park Inn (by Radisson). Lunch was pretty good actually, but I don't know how Russian it was. We had salad, some sort of green soup (there was no menu posted or given,) beef with gravy and mashed potatoes, and a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top of watermelon and apple cubes. 

 

After lunch we drove to the Hermitage.  Our guide recommended everyone take a nap as we sat in horrible traffic, she said she would be quiet, but she just really didn't know how to do that.  Rob timed her, she literally stopped talking for 3 minutes. This is a picture of Rob and Amelie waiting in an appalling line to get into the Hermitage.

 

The museum was founded in 1764 by Catherine the Great.  And the public was allowed in to see it in 1852. There are six buildings in total, and it is one of the largest museums in the world.  We visited four of the buildings, starting with the Winter Palace. From 1732-1917, this was the residence of the Russian Czars.  I took this photo in the Jordan Staircase, or main stairway.  It was as big as many ballrooms we have seen.

 

Fun note about the Hermitage: it has no air conditioning.  Even though the high outside was in the low 60s, inside as the museum became more and more crowded, the temperature reached the 90s.  Also, Charlotte informed me that she would like one of these little chandeliers for her bedroom.

 

Czar Nicholas II was killed by a bomb while he was wearing this uniform.  They saved it.  And displayed it.  And I took a picture of it.

 

Bring on the DaVinci paintings!  

Benois Madonna, approximately 1478. It is little and there was a massive line to see it, but it is beautiful.

 

But I like this one the best!  Madonna Litta with Mary nursing the infant Jesus.

 

And you know, an unfinished Michaelangelo. And there were so, so many more.  We saw some El Greco, VanEyck, Rembrandt, Tizian and we didn't even go to the building containing the Impressionists!  We zoomed around in the crowds, nearly losing children, in sweltering heat for an hour and a half.  Near the end all of our kids needed a bathroom and Rob said he might pass out.  It was kind of awful.  But we went to the Hermitage!!

 

Our last photo stop on the way back to the ship was at The Church on Spilled Blood.  Remember that uniform shirt I took a picture of?  Well this church was built by Nicholas II's son and named because this is the place where his father died.

 

We were so exhausted, we could barely muster a smile.  It had been ten hours since we left the ship.

 

I read that the tallest spire is off center because it is directly over the place where Nicholas II died in 1881. The church had been closed in the 1930s when many churches in the USSR were forced to close.  It only reopened in 1997 after 30 years of restoration work.  It is now a museum.

 

I am so glad we went to St. Petersburg.  It was really different, and amazing to have the opportunity, but I won't be sad to never go to Russia again.  The smog, crowds, traffic.  It was really overwhelming and exhausting.  Though, that's partially because I chose such an ambitious travel day.  Sometimes there is a bit of pain involved in making amazing memories.

Rainy Day in Tallinn

I had heard from others that had taken this cruise that Tallinn was a disappointment, so I tried not to be too excited about it. But I was really excited to go here. In college I read a book called War in the Woods: Estonia's Struggle for Survival as part of a History of Civilization class. And I found Estonia's history really fascinating. When I first met Rob, he randomly owned a clock decorated with the Estonian flag,  a roommate had given to him, and he was interested in Estonia as well.  The city of Tallinn was founded in 1248 and was originally called Reval, but the earliest settlements in this place were about 5,000 years ago. Also, Tallinn's Old Town is one of the best preserved medieval cities in Europe.

It was raining pretty hard when our ship arrived (and off and on throughout the day,) so we altered our original plan of walking and hailed a cab to take us to the furthest point we wanted to visit.  We then worked our way back throughout the day, visiting things on our way back to the port. Our first stop wasn't open yet, so we roamed around the block and saw the National Library.

 

And also this church.  It isn't noteworthy or historical, just a nice looking church.

In front of our first real stop, The Occupation Museum, stands a piece of the Berlin Wall.  Apparently it was gift from Germany about ten years ago... a sort of, "sorry about that whole occupying your country and then leaving you behind the Iron Curtain for nearly 50 years" gift.

 

Estonia has had it rough for the last 80 years.  In 1939 Stalin took control of Estonia as part of an agreement with Germany, who then in 1941 invaded Russia and said, "thanks for hanging on to Estonia for us, y'all."  When World War II ended, Estonia was re-occupied by the Soviets and was made part of the USSR. Fully a quarter of the population of Estonia died in World War II.  Through the 1950s the Forest Brothers (a band of resistance fighters) continued to fight against Soviet rule, expecting that at any moment the Western nations would come to their rescue.  But that never happened.  It wasn't until 1994 that Soviet troops finally left Estonia.

 

The Occupation Museum is small but interesting.  They also had hot chocolate for only a Euro, so our kids were happy there.  Amelie is standing in front of a boat used by refugees attempting to flee Soviet rule.  Between her and the boat is a Naval mine.  In addition to the frigid water temperatures, the Soviets used these to discourage people from leaving across the sea.

 

After the museum we headed into the Old Town. The first sight we came to was the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral.  This Russian Orthodox church was built around 1900, when Estonia was part of the Russian empire.

 

Charlotte posed like that, and then Jake and Amelie copied her.

 

 

St. Mary's Cathedral with the Estonian flag in the foreground.  St. Mary's was built by the Danes in the 13th Century.  It is the oldest church in Estonia, and was the only building to survive a 17th century fire in this area.

 

From the top of Toompea Hill, you can see our cruise ship.  

Also the highest steeple in this picture is St. Olaf's church.  It may have been older than St. Mary's originally but apparently the tower has been struck by lightning at least ten times, and the entire structure has burned down and been rebuilt three times throughout its history.

 

Toby near a little waterfall by the city walls.

 

Estonian wet hair selfie.

 

Charlotte is always cold, so a day in the drizzle was a little torturous for her.  She ended up buying a wool scarf as a souvenir.  (With polar bears on it.)

 

In the market square.  Mostly these were tourist stalls selling woolen items.  Along one side of the square though we found an Indian restaurant with a lunch special.  It was so good!  And the kids enjoyed eating naan bread and watching the tv.  It was a wonderful break from both the drizzle and  mediocre cruise ship food.

 

In front of the town hall.

 

On our way back to the ship we passed by a part of the city walls that could be climbed.  Rob and the boys went up to see the views while the girls and I shopped for souvenirs.

 

Toby patrols the perimeter.

 

Another one of Toby because he is such a cutie.

 

On the edge of town we stopped for a photo in front of Fat Margaret. All of the towers have names that sound funny to us, (Kiek in de Kök for another example,) but this one is named because the walls are up to 5 meters thick.  It was built in the 1500s.

 

So long Tallinn! We were not disappointed.  In fact, we kinda loved it, even with the drizzle all day.