For the past week, I keep saying "Hallo" to people I walk by and am continually reminded that the common greeting here in Bavaria is "Gruess Gott", to which I am just completely unaccustomed. The literal translation is "Greet God". This is just one of the many reminders that Bavaria or in German, Bayern, is predominately Catholic. I cannot even begin to count the many ways in how different Niedersachsen, Lower Saxony, is different from Bayern. (Hannover is the capital of Niedersachsen).
Every time I come to visit my parents in Fuessen, Bavaria, I am in culture shock! ;) But I am getting ahead of myself. Here is a bit of how we got down to the southern part of Germany:
A week ago Monday, Mom, Dad, Caleb and I drove from Hannover down to Fuessen. But before we left, Caleb was in Oma and Opa daycare while Dani and I went downtown to do a little shopping.
Kind of like Macy's, Kaufhof always has really impressive display windows, especially around Christmas time. When I saw the huge Lego statues, I just had to take some pictures for Andrew. Pretty impressive. I wonder how long it took to put those together?!
We headed upstairs to the toy department and I made a new friend...
... I wonder if I could somehow stuff him into my suitcase. I would love to see the look on the faces of the airport attendants if I brought him with me.
Of course, we had to make a stop at one of the many bakeries. This by the way is one of my favorite things about Germany. I love love love German bread and breakfasts. Looking at this picture, can you see why? As my sister Ellen said, though, before coming to Germany, it is my first time back while being on a gluten free diet, which quite literally "stinks"!
Every once in a while, I've had to cheat and allow myself a delicious goody, but thankfully, we have also found some really good GF bread, which isn't exactly the same but still pretty great, for my regular indulgence. I wish I could bring a whole suitcase of it back with me!!!
Around noon, Mom, Dad and Caleb picked me up at Dani's and we said "good-bye", hoping to see one another next year in the Wheaton. We started our 7 hour road trip south to my parents' German residence, which is just 20 minutes from the Austrian border. Just for a little background information, we lived in Hannover from 1987 - 2007 when my parents moved to Bavaria during my freshman year in college so that my younger brother could live at home (he was at a winter sport boarding school for ice hockey) as well as for ministry purposes.
Caleb did an excellent job in the car. He slept for several hours, watched Baby Einstein, read books, chewed on a figurine head, and just looked out the window. We made one stop at a Burger King so that Caleb could get out and stretch his little legs as well as eat some french fries. Yes, I'm afraid to say that my little guy definitely takes after his mommy in his love for the delicious salty, greasy snack. Yummm! Lecker, lecker!
So, Caleb has become a little Bavarian boy in the past week and a half. More on what we have been up to here in this beautifully picturesque countryside in the next post.
Mommyhood looks beautiful on you :-)
ReplyDeleteGreat to hear from you!! And I've been enjoying following your Germany adventure on feedly the last couple weeks :-)
Hugs to Caleb and your parents and YOU!
Love,
Em
Thanks, Em! ;)
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