Sommertagszug

A local tradition for the region around Heidelberg - Kurpfalz - is a parade which is a goodbye for winter. All the different neighborhoods of Heidelberg and surrounding villages have such a Sommertagszug  - so we checked out the one in the old town.
First Mia discovered a poster advertising the musical performance where she will part of next weekend with her choir. Actually, this weekend she spent rehearsing both Saturday and Sunday morning

 Then we watched the parade come down the main street. The winter was a white figure made out of paper

On the market square it was place on a big stage - awaiting his fate.

Mia found a spot in the front

Then two professional dancers - one as winter one as summer - showed winter getting defeated by summer

After this it was time to burn winter

The rest of the program where different dance performances from dance and ballet schools

At the end sweet pretzels were handed out to the children

Since the day was so nice we also went to big playground in a new neighborhood that is being developed. There Mia saw some friends from her school and also some other friends from Washington DC that moved here at the beginning of the year and now live one block from the playground

Bike Tour

Finally the weather is turning nice and we used a sunny Saturday afternoon for a bike tour. To take it easier for Mia we took a train from Heidelberg to Ladenburg - unfortunately with older cars that made it difficult to get the bikes in an out - and started from there.

 The city has a beautiful old town with buildings from the 1500  hundreds. Luckily there was also an ice cream parlor ....

One kilometer away was our next stop on a little beach by the river Neckar where Mia found shells and interesting stones

The next stop was also on the river close to some locks halfway between Ladenburg and Heidelberg where there are some more natural part

Here Mia discovered the nest of a swan

Another Family Afternoon

Mia got a personal invitation from the organizers of the monthly family game afternoon at the Kulturfenster - the cultural center around the corner from our apartment. So of course she had to go.
But first we went for a little walk in the woods that are just a short walk from the city center.

We made it back in time but there was a little delay since Mia also wanted to play with some neighbor kids in the backyard. So different from her plans she couldn't help with the set up.
At the Kulturfenster we tried some new games

There was also a pretty nice performance with clowns that did some magic tricks - and for one they needed Mia as an assistant

We stayed until the end and Mia tried a few more things

..and at the end was helping with cleaning up

Matheisemarkt

Om the first weekend with spring like temperatures we went to see the first big fair of the season in Schriesheim.

After a little walk over the fair grounds Mia wanted to the pony ride ;ast the year before

The horses had to stp when some music groups passed bze

There also was a walk through pirate ship adventure

Mia was a bit wet when she left but she enjoyed it

Touring Vienna with Zhongwei

Ji's brother had some time to spend with us on Friday so we showed him around in the city we had explored on the two earlier days.
We started with the imperial castle and the St Stephan's cathedral

 Then we took him on a old street car to the Hundertwasser house build by the famous artist and architect

 There was a little Hundertwassser themed shopping are close bye

After a tour of the Nachmarkt we went to Schönbrunn the imperial summer palace

It was very windy so Mia took some precausion...

A old guard house offered shelter from the wind

After meeting Zhongwei again on Saturday we took the train back to Heidelberg. Part of the trip took us part passed the Bavarian Alps during sunset

We had reserved seats with a table - good for playing games or brushing up on math homework

Mia was very tried when we arribed home at 11 pm