Fidget Spinner

Ji heard from an old friend in the US about the fidget spinner which are a popular toy. The next day Mia heared about it at her school as well. When Ji tried to buy one they were  already sold out at the local stores but she was told at one place about a possible shipment that might come in the next day between 3 and 5 pm. Luckily that was true and she got the last two ones - and made a big surprise for Mia.

Family Day at a Bakery

When we went to pick up something special for breakfast for Mother's Day we noticed that the bakery was getting ready for a big event. They were celebrating their 60 year anniversary with a open house and entertainment for children. So in the afternoon we went there again to have a look.

The bakery had several rooms in the basement were we could look around

Cookies were ready to be eaten

Outside there was music and food

 A bouncy cancle

After that we took a little bike tour and made it bake just when a hailstorm started...

A walk in the Rain

From May 1 until October a bus runs to the top of the Heiligenberg - a mountain on the north side of the river Neckar facing the old town and the castle in Heidelberg. We thought that would be a good opportunity to explore that area as well and we started in some light mist. When we were on top of the Heiligenberg the rain became much harder but it was still a nice walk.

We started a the ruins of a 1000 year old monastery

We manged to stay dry and the woods looked kind of nice in the mist

We ended up across the river from he old town

The snails liked the weathr

Theater Project

The second grade had prepared a theater performance of Astrid Lindgren's "Ronja Räubertochter" that was shown on Friday afternoon during an open house at the school. Mia was one of the stage hands

Würzburg

The pass for public transportation - Job Ticket - allows free travel on the weekend for the owner and four more people and we use it quite often. The furthest we can go west is almost to the Saarland and also into France and to the East we can go to Würzburg which is about two hours by train. On a cloudy Saturday we decided to make a little trip there.
First we checked out the city center and the market square

On a stand about the environment one could race model cars with electricity from a bike. Mia really liked it.

At the stand of the forestry department she could decorate a little wooden cutting board with a soldering iron

Then we walked to the old bridge across the river Main to get to he old fortress

The bridge is a popular gathering spot to drink a glass of local wine - or in this case to five an choir performance

Then we walked up the hill

Luckily there was a nice beer garden close by the main castle gate

Mia had brought some of her stuffed animals that always come along on vacation

Luckily the sun came out a bit

The way down was easier

An old fountain helps to freshen up a bit

Zeppelin Museum Friedrichshafen

On our last day at Lake Constance we went to see a museum dedicated to the zeppelin in Friedrichshafen - where it was developed a bit more than 100 years ago by count Zeppelin.
In the mid 1930'ies one could travel to the US or Brazil in the large air ships

They were bigger than an ocean liner and a modern Airbus A380 looks small in comparison

 In the museum the passenger cabin had been recreated

The Bauhaus style furniture looks still modern

The walls were metal frames covered with cloth

 Outside it had gotten really cold and windy

On the drive back to Heidelberg it was even snowing

The sudden cold weather with frost at night was really bad news for the fruit orchards and wine yards - some farmers got big losses

Adeventure Park Immenstaad

With the weather not so great and traffic really bad we walked to an adventure park just outside Immenstaad. It had climbing courses up in the trees one could explore while secured along a steel cable.
The walk there took us through fruit orchards

With some light rain on and off there were not many people

After some introduction it was tine for the first course

Mia did pretty well

In the afternoon we drove to castle Salem - a famous boarding school - using tiny backroads