There was much discussion about whether we should go to Munich for lunch on our way home or go to the Eagle's Nest, Hilter's mountain hide away. Finally we decided it would be way cooler to go to the Eagle's Nest!
Once again another spectacular drive through beautiful countryside. If I lived here I'd never get anything done I'd always be looking at the view! The mountain road up to the Eagle's Nest is so treacherous that they have specially designed buses that you have to take. They road is 6.5 kms long and 4 m wide and had to cover 800 m of altitude. There are 5 tunnels and then an elevator takes you last 124 m.
It was built as a 50th birthday present for Hitler and needed to be finished within a year. In it is a fireplace that was a present from Mussolini and a carpet from HIRO HITO, the emperor of Japan. The funny thing is once you get there it's really just set up as a restaurant with a fantastic view. You can go on a little tour, we chose not to, but that's about it. It's the trip up and back and the view!
Because we didn't do the tour we bought one of the guide books. It is fascinating getting the German perspective about Hitler. You can imagine they don't want to talk about that brief but deadly time in their history! The first line in the book mentions that the German Empire has existed for over 1000 years and the Nazi's were only in power for 12 years. The Nurnburg trials are mentioned too. The last line of the introduction states that the first article of their constitution is "The German folk vows to acknowledge absolute Human Rights for every community to have peace and justice throughout the world." The average German citizen even today is a victim of Hitler. It is incredible the damage that man is responsible for.
We arrived home at about 6pm ready for a quiet evening and early to bed. That was not to happen. There had been this sign in the hall of the apartment complex and we could decipher that there was some sort of party being held today but we didn't give it much thought. First we don't really know anybody here and our original plan was that we wouldn't be arriving home until tomorrow. The man who organized the party is someone from Bruce's work. Lovely man, who insisted that we joined the bbq. It was a great evening. There were two kids, 13 and 15 years old, that spoke a little bit of English that amused the girls and there were a couple of people who spoke a little English. People have been so warm and inviting to us. We didn't get the girls into bed until 11pm! Once again the feeling of dread comes over me as I think how hard it's going to be get these kids back into any kind of routine any time soon!
Sunday, the last day of Bruce's holiday, was blisteringly hot! After heading into Mainz, Olivia needed to conquer a slide there, long story! Bruce called Jen's and he told us about a beer garten next to a waterpark around the corner from where we were. Something for everyone! While we were enjoying our beer I got stung by a wasp! Ouch! It was much more surprising than painful. We then headed to Jen's an Oli's for a quick visit, which ended up with a dinner invitation, which being the moochers that we have turned into, we accepted! It wasn't painful enough to even mention...
The next day the girls and I headed off to a park and then to pick up some groceries, on the way home I was stung by another wasp! How weird is that? Clearly the Fairley curse has returned! The second sting was on my arm and has been really quite painful! We checked on the Internet to see what we should do and it said you didn't medical attention unless the inflamed area reached 10 inches. I maxed out at 8 inches yesterday afternoon. The first sting on my leg is now just a hideous bruise and the one on my arm is much less painful today! The concern for me is that I go to the hospital and try and tell them that I've been stung by a bee on my arm and then they translate that into 'please amputate my arm' I know that seems unlikely but you haven't seen the dinners that I thought I ordered compared to what I've received!!
The girls and I have now turned into those crazy annoying people who freak out every time a fly is around!
Never a dull moment!
We have discovered a water park that is about 2km from here. Walking distance! We went there yesterday and it was amazing. It has a wave pool with a current pool around it. A climbing wall, really quite cool. And a ginormous waterslide. We plan to head there this afternoon and then Bruce is going to meet us there after work. Olivia did mention yesterday that if Bruce had been there he would have been throwing them around and other fun stuff! Hmph!
8 days and counting!
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