Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Gruß aus Eichstätt!

Hallo! We made it! Let’s not spend too much space focusing on the trip to Eichstätt. We can sum up by simply stating that it went much better than Phil’s expectations and much worse than Rachel’s expectations. But all in all, we made all connections (three planes, two buses, two trains and a taxi), didn’t lose any luggage (20 pieces) or kids (4) and there were only 3 meltdowns (two kids and one mommy).

Eichstätt is amazingly beautiful. It is a picturesque town built on a hill. A mountain stream (Altmühl) meanders through the town, under bridges, along cobblestone streets and paddleboat parks. One very small part of the stream is even used as a trout farm, with two gated sections full of baby trout, then large full grown trout, which are sold to families at Easter time.

Our apartment is very comfortable for our family, even with Annie Durbin staying this week. It has a small half bath completely separate from a tub and sink area, a benched kitchen table that serves as a dining area, a living room with sectional sofa and satellite television (all in German, of course), two bedrooms, a storage closet and a balcony. As of yet we still have to get the land lady to turn on the hot water heater and the furnace, but otherwise we are sehr gut!

Today we all walked for several hours exploring our new temporary home. We saw two churches (Dom, und Schutzengel Kirche), the latter of which was full of giant altar pieces painted by Johann Evangelist Holzer. We also saw the school that Edy will attend (it is still not in session) and noticed from a sign posted that her teacher is named Sr. Edith! We patronized a gelato stand and a nearby bakery to buy brot to eat with our dinner.

Cute Lucy quote that I would be remiss to not mention: on the last train ride into Eichstätt there was another little three year old girl trying to communicate with Lucy. Lucy was confused and Rachel encouraged her by saying, “she is your friend, go and say hi”. Lucy obeyed and watched her from a distance and finally declared to her parents, “That little girl doesn’t know how to talk!” She also has been making up her own language babbling much more nonsense than usual with a bunch of dankes thrown in.

We are adjusting to Germany and enjoying time here and we hope to post a blog entry every three or four days. Thank you for your prayers and we miss you all very much. P.S. We do not have internet access from our apartment. We will try skyping and emailing when we get the chance! Guten Tag!

3 comments:

  1. What beautiful pictures!! I'm so excited for you guys...this is such an awesome experience! I know most of your kids probably won't remember much about this time, but Edy sure will. What an amazing chance for her! I look forward to hearing all about your adventures!

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  2. Glad you made it! It looks like such a beautiful place. I can't wait for more updates!

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  3. Congrats on surviving the trip over! We miss you guys a lot and look forward to the updates.

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