Stuttgart and Legoland

May 19-22, 2014

Jason had the brilliant idea to go to Legoland.
Our last trip to Legoland in California took us about 10 hours to drive there. Legoland Deutschland is only 3 hours away from us!

We planned for 3 whole days.
Our first day Jason found a zoo in Stuttgart. About 2 hours from us, it made for a good stop.

The zoo had a lot of beautiful landscaping. Not like the 100% concrete ones that I've been to in the US.
Very green and lots of trees.
My favorite was the goat mountain which was also inhabited by monkeys! The monkeys would actually climb onto the goats and groom them. It was really cute!

There was also a cute monkey Gavin's size that was playing peek-a-boo with him in the primate house.

There was also a bontanical garden and several fountains. And throughout the park there were fun little climbing structures with ropes or beams for balancing.
It was a good time and Gavin left with a bright orange snake.

After Stuttgart we headed to our hotel in Günzburg.

Wow, it was so awesome! The hotel was quite cute and had a very large and comfy bed for Jason and I as well as a bunk bed for the kids, a small dining room and a bathroom with a very confusing shower. The best part of our hotel was the location. It was right on Marktstraße and our view of the street below was super sweet.

After getting settled we took a stroll through the town and chose from all the restaurants where to eat....we decided Chinese.
We were not disappointed. The food was yummy, the weather was lovely and because we were sitting outside our food was served over two warmers. The kids loved it (Brytons roast duck was delicious!) And after they ate they played around the fountain in the middle of the market.

After dinner we walked to the Gelato shop. Yum. I had chili chocolate ice cream. Burning hot and ice cold.

Day 1 down. It was such fun, but we were tired!

Day 2 started at the bakery down the street. After a great breakfast we hopped in the car with our Camelback's and headed to Legoland with a quick stop to buy ice for our bags (totally with it)

A few weeks before we planned our trip Gavin had a happy meal with a 50% off coupon for Legoland. So only paying 80€ for a whole day of fun was definitely a bonus!

Little did we know that going to Legoland on a Tuesday would be one of the best ideas ever. There was no one there. We parked right up front! We never had to wait in line...at all! We cruised through the park going on ride after ride nonstop.

It was a very warm day and when the water themed rides opened we headed on over and left completely soaked! One ride simply consisted of sitting on a very slow boat with squirt cannons while passersby and passengers other boats assaulted us with 500 gallons of water....freezing cold water!
Totally refreshing.

Legoland was a huge success and the kids were spent before the park closed.

Gavin was just shy of being tall enough for a few of the rides but it didn't get him down.

Both the kids are mildly obsessed with the Lego movie. So each were allowed to pick out a Lego set. As if they weren't spoiled enough, but what are vacations for?

So our 3rd day was supposed to be another day at Legoland, but having done everything there with hours to spare we decided to leave and check out of our hotel a day early.

On our last morning we went to another bakery for breakfast, and headed back to Stuttgart.

I found a fabulous park there. Kind of like a Central Park it was a very very large landscaped area with flowers and ponds and a playground. But our first stop was a giant climbing tower. 4 or 5 stories high we climbed to the top of the spiral staircase and enjoyed the view from the top. Our calves were thanking us later for this climb after 2 days of walking.

The kids enjoyed themselves at the sandy park for a while and then we headed deeper into the city to checkout a really cool market we heard about.
While it was cool, the market was literally a market. Spices, fruits, vegetables, meats, and cheeses. Pretty neat but we weren't there to buy groceries.
So we took to the cobble stone and we toured the shopping district.
These shopping streets are always very cool with lots to see...and eat.

Finally though, it was time to come home.

A day early, half priced tickets,and a very inexpensive dog sitter ($30) this vaca wasn't as expensive as we had expected, and was over-the-top fun!

Mannheim

May 3, 2014

After seeing dozens and dozens of signs advertising the Mannheim Markt we decided we really should check it out.

So, we did.

After a long drive and the fluster if finding out where to park we finally made it in.
Immediately we find ourselves surrounded by African goods, food, and music. Definitely a little confused, but super hungry we went to a good looking shack with meat on skewers and a delicious smell wafting from it.

I ordered a little bit of everything.
Well everything was ice cold despite being in what looked like warmers and all the meat being grilled just outside the shack. And it was rather costly.
Bummer. Well it was the first time we blindly tried something and regretted it.
Bleh

As we continued through the market we realized we were in the African portion of it. There was a lot more there to see. A large tent with all sort of toys and fun things as well as a candy hut and farm animal tent.
Those were the highlights. Everything else was like a trade show selling tractors, windows, kitchen appliances etc.

We bought a yummy strawberry treat and then made our way out.

Definitely not the most exciting thing we've done so far, but now we know we're not missing anything.

After the market we headed to the Technomuseum.

Now finding exactly where to park in Deutschland can be a challenge every time you leave the house. And while we thought we were in the right place, it turns out the road I took lead directly to the concrete patio at the bottom of the stairs of the museum...its hard to explain but let just say I was on the opposite side of the marble barriers that keep cars out....oops

The museum had 5 or 6 different levels. Starting at the top you make a somewhat spiral downward through all the exhibits.

Most everything was hands on...except for the things with tiny plaques in German that said do not touch...which we didn't notice until it was too late...oops again

There was a lot to do here. And it was really fun. I'll let the pictures do the talking.

After a fun day at the museum we decided to top it off with our very first trip to IKEA.

Now I don't blame anyone but I feel someone should have told me that this would be a mistake.

The cool parts were the free daycare for the kids. Which had toys, a ball pit, lots of friends, all in a very cool treehouse themed play area. The other bonus is that we were able to find a small kitchen island for the microwave. Which added more counter space, two shelves and two draws to my tiny kitchen.

Now the crappy part.

In order to get out VAT form (a system to not pay the 19% tax) filled about it was about an hour wait. That sucked. And then we headed upstairs to eat. 

Of course we tried the meatballs. Why wouldn't we?

They were pretty good.

I like my family's recipe better...just saying.

Here comes the part where someone should have warned me.

Once you go up stairs you cannot leave without walking through the entire (and I mean ENTIRE store again) its a warehouse for crying out loud. So after our day of walking through the Mannheim Market, the 5 story museum, and IKEA once already, we had to walk it all over again....the store itself is like 2 miles.

Yes, I'm whining.

It was a long day and IKEA was like torture.

I'm glad I got what I needed because I will most likely never be going back.

Overall, hooray Mannheim was fun. Next time I'm taking the train.

Wiesbaden April 19, 2014

Wiesbaden was amazing and beautiful! It was really what I had imagined Kaiserslautern to look like. K-town is nice and all but when we received orders to Germany I thought it would be all red roofs, painted shutters and cobblestone. Kaiserslautern is more industrial than I had assumed.

We began our visit by going to Kletterwald. A tight rope obstacle course high up in the trees!  I misunderstood the website when it said ages 4 and up. Gavin was only allowed to do a tiny version if the obstacle course but no adults were allowed to accompany a child on it. Gavin wasn't have fun and he and Jason ended up staying on the ground while Bryton and I climbed, balanced, and zip lined our way through the tree branches.

I had to put my purse and phone in a locker so we don't actually have any picutlres to share.

Bryton and I had a lot of fun together but lost track of time while Jason and Gavin waited for us.

After our tree exploration we went down into the city to walk through the shopping district on the cobblestone streets.
There we found a fun Lego store to play in for a while. Other stores included a 1€ shop and a fun little gift shop that sold stuffed animal head mounts (ie the unicorn in the picture).

As dinner time rolled around we walked up to an Asian diner and parked our keesters on the patio. Each seat had a small fleece blanket folded and draped across it. This was super nice as it was getting chilli sitting in the shade.
I was able to order our dinner in German and while we waited a stranger came up to us and speaking German, complimented my speaking German and how dissapointing it is that so few Americans try to learn the language.
So that was very nice.
Dinner was amazing! We all cleaned our plates and continued down the cobblestone. We found small easter baskets and then some Gelato.

After a long day of touring the city and seeing some amazing sites we headed back to our parking garage.