Frankenstein Castle & Herxheim

The last day Opa & Oma were here, we took them to Burg Frankenstein which is only about an hour and fifteen minutes from our house. 

It was raining, but as the German's say,

"There is no such thing as bad weather, just bad preparation."

We got our umbrellas & hiked up to the castle from the parking lot.  Unfortunately, they were doing their haunted house until the 10th of November so the castle was shut down for the day (but opening at night to scare people).  We were a little sad that this was our SECOND castle that was closed due to Haunted Houses, but at least we got to see it from the outside.  We are definitely planning a trip back up there to take a tour.  It's a cool looking castle from the outside.  I would love to hear the tales of how Mary Shelly got her inspiration for her book from this area.

After Burg Frankenstein, we hopped over to a small village called Herxheim.  Really there's nothing of note there for most people, but for our family, Herxheim is important.  Trek & his mom love doing geneaology.  Oma's grandfather immigrated from Germany & this is where the Kinsfather family line originated.  This is where they are from.  We promised Oma we'd take here here to see where her grandfather's family grew up.  It was such a sweet little village.  I'm glad we were able to take her there.

Adventure is Out There:

History of Frankenstein Castle

Frankenstein Castle Website with Info.

Creative Connections 2019

Lorien was accepted in the European Creative Connections Program this year.  I mentioned it in the post about her Orchestra Concert.  She had to fill out a HUGE application, write 3 essays, & submit an audition video of her playing her cello.  

Only 29 students from all over Europe were selected to be part of the program.  Lo was one of 6 cellists invited to play in the string ensemble.

The program was 6 days in South Eastern Germany & she loved every minute of it.  She met other teens from other schools all across Europe & loved playing her cello for 8 hours every day.  The concert was spectacular.  Click the video above to see her perform.  The String Ensemble performs about 1 1/2 hours into the video, but you can also watch the art show, film students' short films, theater performances, dance perormances, & choir concert.

Enjoy.

Braces

Sometimes life throws you some curveballs & you just have to roll with it.  I've known I've had issues with my teeth for about 6 years now, but we move so often that nobody would ever start fixing it for me.  Now that we are in one place for more than 2 years, it's time.

My mouth is a mess at this point, so we have 3 phases of work to get done.  Phase 1 is braces which happened on November 7th.  How old am I?  I feel like a 12 year old with a lisp.  Phase 2 happens next month . . . extractions.  I've got to get 3 teeth pulled (see that ugly snaggle tooth without a brace on the bottom?  Yup, see ya later!  And then 2 big guys from the top are going away too!)  Phase 3 happens in one year & requires grafting surgery (don't ask about that one, it's going to be awful!!!  At least I have a year to prepare myself for that one!)

Right now I'm just getting used to having braces.  I have bumpers on my back teeth which makes it so that I can't bite for a while.  It makes it extremely hard to eat & chew.  This could last anywhere from 1 month to 6 months. . . time will tell.  I'm a foodie so this is pure torture to me.  I just want to eat food.  I knew I wouldn't be able to eat chips, popcorn, or caramel. . . but I literally can't eat anything but soup, applesauce, smoothies, & cream of wheat right now & I'm dying a little inside.  I know it's not forever, so this too shall pass.  It doesn't make it easy or enjoyable, but I look forward to being able to bite & chew some normal food again . . . soon . . ish.

I am excited to know that 2 years from now, all my oral issues will be fixed, I'll have a beautiful smile, & I won't be contantly worried about whether or not my teeth will survive.  I look forward to that day.

Citadel Bitche, France

On Halloween day, the kids had school & Trek had to work, so I took Opa & Oma exploring again.  We drove about an hour & found ourselves in Bitche, France.  There, on top of a HUGE hill stands a fortress like nothing I've seen before.  One thing I'm learning about Europe is how to distinguish between a castle, a palace, a fort, & a fortress.  They are all very different things, but they are also all "castles" to kids.  This thing is a FORTRESS & it is massive in size.  It was built in the 13th century.  As you drive up over a hill & down into the Bitche Valley, you look up & you almost wreck your car as you're starting at this MOUNTAIN of a fortress in front of you.  Luckily, you can drive all the way up to the fortress walls (in case you don't want to hike it).  It was FREEZING so we drove all the way up.  When we got out of the car & started exploring the citadel this is what we found . . . 

Everywhere we looked there were dug up graves, empty caskets, & weird things.

We walked over to a big shed & there was scary music playing from a speaker inside.  We realized we had just walked into a completely vacant haunted house.  Immediately Oma & I grabbed Opa & told him to protect us.  We were slightly terrified.

Then we found this walkway up to a big tunnel.  Our curiosity was getting the better of us so we walked towards the dark entrance.

There was a demon on top as well as 2 guardian skeletons on either side of the entrance.  It was the weirdest thing because it was completely empty.  There wasn't a single person in sight.  We didn't know if there was a place to pay for entrance to the citadel or if it was closed or what was going on.  Usually there's a turnstyle or a cashier booth or something, but we were literally just walking around & nobody was there.

We walked through the dark tunnel & there was SCARY music & sounds playing the whole time.  I was almost in tears (I do NOT handle scary things very well), but we made it out the other side.  Outside the tunnel  was another graveyard & more Halloween decorations.  The citadel itself was beautiful, but we really were wanting to find out what was going on & if there were tours open.

Finally we found someone near the church on top of the citadel.  They told us the citadel was closed until night because it was their big Halloween haunted house.  They apologized & told us we needed to leave.  We felt bad we were where we weren't supposed to be, but there was literally no signs anywhere.  So we went back through the dark scary tunnel (& videoed it this time so we'd remember being scared).

Dark Tunnel Video

Dark Tunnel Video #2

On our way out we posed with the scary guys guarding the entrance.

Then we found a nice trail that goes all the way around the citadel.  It took us a full hour to walk around the entire thing.  It was amazing.  I can't wait to come back & actually do a tour when it's open.

Adventure is Out There:

Citadelle Bitche Website

History

Visiting Information

Entrance: 10 Euro for Adults, 6 Euro for Kids, Under 6 is free

Citadelle Bitche
Rue de Bombelles 
57230 Bitche (F)  
Telefon +33 (0)3 87 96 18 82 
citadelle.bitche@wanadoo.fr 
Website

Halloween 2019

Well, another year has rolled around & you know what that means for the Potters . . . 

HALLOWEEN COSTUMES.

This year was hard because it was an overseas move which didn't allow me to sew as much as I would have liked to.  My sewing machine was packed in April, & I didn't unpack it until September.  I still haven't found any fabric stores here that supply the type of fabric I need for my costumes, so this year we ended up reusing a theme we've done in the past & I added a few new costumes to it.  Opa & Oma joined us for Halloween so we got to dress them up too.

My dear sweet husband, who is always SO supportive of my Halloween shenanigans, shaved his head AND EYEBROWS for his character this year.  He's a good sport.

So the Potters welcomed Halloween in 2019 as Harry POTTER characters.

Trek as Voldemort

Dani as Professor Trelawny

Opa as Dumbledore

Oma as Professor McGonagall

Cadence as Luna Lovegood

Lorien as Bellatrix Lestrange

Taya as Hermione Granger

Bladen as Draco Malfoy

Craiger as Ron Weasley

and Canyon as Harry Potter

Our church always puts together a really fun Halloween party & trunk or treat.  This year I was in charge of the cake walk with Taya, Lorien was in charge of a balloon dance room, & Cadence was in charge of face painting.  The boys got to walk around with Opa & Oma to play all the games before dinner.  We all had a blast.

The Halloween dinner is ALWAYS a chili cook-off.  Over the years Trek & I have learned that to do a chili cook off right, you need muffin pans so you can actually taste all the chilis.  They were all delicious this year.

The teens all ate with their friends.  I'm glad they have such good friends here.

The church party was a huge success.  We handed out full size candy bars for the trunk or treat (because that's my family tradition).  Our family won best costumes & surprisingly I won the chili cook off too.  I've never won a chili cookoff before.  It was exciting.

The very next day was actual Halloween.  Halloween isn't a holiday here in Germany, but because so many Americans live here on the German economy, you can find little neighbourhoods that do allow trick or treating.  The village next to ours has a ton of Americans & so there is a whole housing area that does trick or treating.  We went there this year.  It was great because even the Germans play along.  A LOT of the houses we knocked on were Germans & they handed out the best German candies ever.  I loved hearing the little German kids saying trick-or-treat too.  It makes my heart happy that 2 different cultures can live together so peacefully & learn from each other.

We had a lot of fun & the best part is that because the neighbourhood here was so small, we weren't drowning in candy.  It was the perfect amount for the kids to enjoy without being completely sugared out.  It was a great Halloween.