Luisen Park

We spent the day at Luisen park on Saturday. It is in Mannheim and only about 10 min by Strassenbahn. We took the Strassenbahn with all the kids. They kept asking why we couldn't just take the car. I said because this is part of the experience. Luisen park is a great place to spend the day. There is so much to do. We also only had to pay for 2 of our 5 children, so the price was great.

We played chess on the lifesize chess games.

We played in the fountain. The kids were just glad it didn't rain on Saturday. They have been wanting to go swimming, but we haven't made it to the pool yet.

We had a picnic lunch on the grass where a stork and a goose tried to get our lunch.

We went on a boat ride and saw fish with big mouths, that were begging for food. There were geese, ducks, turtles and flamingos.

On the way out we stopped and got an ice cream, or Eis, as is is called here in Germany. We had an enjoyable day, and I am sure we will be going back, because we missed so much. We missed the butterfly house, and the bumper cars, and the little water park for the kids.

I am not sure when we will go back, because the forcast says we are to have cloudy, rainy weather for the next 10 days. But, we will go back.

Heidelburg

This is Heidelburg, Germany. This is one of the first places we went when we got here. The castle was amazing, and the gardens surrounding it were amazing. We took the Strassenbahn(Street car) and most of us slept all the way there, and most of the way back when we were done. We were still suffering from jetlag. Despite the fact that we were so tired, we all had a great time. On the walk up to the castle we stopped at a vendor and got some pomme frits (fries) and mayonnaise and brautwurst for lunch. It was an interesting challenge. We don't know German, and the vendor didn't know english. but, somehow we all got lunch. After they ate the kids went to look for the bathroom, and came back and said they didn't have one. All that was back there was a room with WC on it. My husband and I just laughed and told them that WC stands for Water Closet, which means the bathroom.

This is the Wasserturm in Mannheim, Germany.
This is one of the first places we visited when we got here last November. We took the Strassenbahn (street car) into town with all 5 children(what were we thinking). The Fountain was empty, but the kids watched some of the local children riding their bikes around in it.I am just grateful that we didn't lose any of them on the Strassenbahn.