Friday saw Team Lilla get off to a very slow start! The long car rides and the late nights had caught up with everyone, so we let them all enjoy their beds, did our first loads of laundry, and made another trip to the grocery store. Of course, as soon as everyone got rolling we were right back at it. We didn’t have a specific plan in mind, so we gave the kids 5 options, and they were very considerate of one another, which is always rewarding to see as a parent. They all knew Juliette would really enjoy the Allianz Stadium tour, the home of Bayern München, one of the most successful soccer clubs in the world. Charlie, on the other hand, really wanted to see the race cars and motorcycles at the BMW Museum. With our plans in hand, we were off!

The Allianz Stadium was only 10 minutes from our home in Unterföhring, so before we knew it we were inside the stadium and checking the incredible Bayern München Museum.

Because this club is so successful, they have a vast collection of hardware, including 28 Bundesliga Championships, 18 DFB Pokal Cups, 5 UEFA Champions League Cups, and countless other awards and honors. They also have an awesome setup for children, including a small playground, a virtual reality exhibit, and a spot to build models of the various trophies. This museum was a huge hit, and our only regret was leaving so soon, but it was time for the tour!

Now up until this point, my German language skills have been a huge asset for Team Lilla, but today they backfired. When I purchased the “Kombiticket” I did so in German, and as we arrived for the tour we made two discoveries – there was a tour in English at 12:45 pm (“our language” as Sam has been saying) and we were on the 12:30 pm German language tour!! The story I’m telling myself, and everyone else, is that my German was so good, the cashier didn’t think twice about selling me the tour in German. I scrambled to get our time switched, but everything was sold out, so we went with it and I attempted to translate as much as I could. At the end of the day, we got to see an incredible sporting facility, Liz made up her own hilarious translations, and Juliette got to see a big time German soccer stadium.

Next we were off to the BMW Museum, which was only a 10 minute drive up the road. The first thing we noticed was the cool architecture that housed the BMW Museum and across the street, BMW Welt.

We made our way into the museum to check out the cars, both old and new, only to discover that no one in our family really likes cars that much. My expectation was that there would be some interactive exhibits, the museum is all about driving after all, but we were sorely disappointed. Car and motorcycle, one after another, just isn’t our cup of tea. Once we had made our way through we headed over to BMW Welt, which is a glorified showroom, and had a lot of fun sitting on the motorcycles and taking a few pictures!

On Saturday we had an amazing opportunity to hang out with Siegfried (Siggi) Fülle, a three time Olympic gymnast from the DDR (East Germany). I had met Siggi’s son-in-law, Frank, at a conference back in April, and as I was telling him about Metro Stars Gymnastics, he was unusually interested in the business. It turns out that his wife, Britta was an elite gymnast (check out the link), and more or less missed out on the 1988 Seoul games, and a bronze medal in the team competition representing East Germany, due to injury. Additionally, Britta’s father, Siggi, competed in the 1960, 1964, and 1968 Olympic games, where he came away with two bronze medals in the team competition. Frank mentioned we should get together when we came to Germany, and so we did!

Frank, Britta, and their 14 year old daughter, Eleah, took a train down from Berlin to meet us at the Chinese Tower (Chinesischer Turm), which has a lovely beer garden, all the food you could ever want, and liquid refreshment to wash it all down! Our kids had so much fun playing at the nearby park, where they made friends with children from all over the world. Liz had no less than three people seek her out to compliment her on how funny and outgoing the kids were.

In the meantime, I had a long conversation with Siggi (in German) about all things gymnastics! He brought his photo album which included photos of gymnastics legends like Takashi Ono (5x Gold Medalist, 4x Silver Medalist, 4x Bronze Medalist) and Sergey Diomidov (super famous parallel bar skill named after him). Unfortunately he did not bring his Olympic medal, as he thought it a little presumptuous to do so. Next time!

What I thought might be a short visit turned into an entire day. Our kids had a great time with Eleah, and she got to practice her English. Really, our families got along famously and it felt like we were visiting old friends, not making new ones. We were all so grateful that they came down here to visit us, after what was basically a 10 minute conversation in Toronto. The best part is that are planning to reconnect when we travel to Berlin in a few weeks!

Sunday meant that our time in Munich had come to a close, but it also meant we were ready for our next adventure. I started the day playing Tetris, also known as loading the minivan with all our stuff which maybe isn’t packed quite as efficiently as it was when we got here and maybe we accumulated a little bit more stuff. The result worked, and we were on our way to the Black Forest, with a little stop on the island of Lindau on Lake Constance.

We parked our car on the mainland and made our way to the island by foot. As we explored Lindau we came upon a beer garden (imagine that) and discovered Katie’s favorite meal thus far – rotisserie chicken! The kids ate a whole chicken, and I almost lost a finger when I tried to get bite, so if you find yourself in Lindau, check out Zur Alten Werft and get yourself a chicken!

Our next plan was go swimming in Lake Constance, but in spite of about an hour of searching, we couldn’t find anywhere to do it. We walked all over town, we got back in the car to look, and we even drove to Austria! This was giant fail, and left the kids in grouchy town for a few hours.

After a total of 5 hours in the car, and our first experience with a German traffic jam (a Stau) we arrived at our next home base in the Black Forest at a home caled Dorerhof. This guest house is run by an incredibly fit woman named Irmgard, who, along with her husband, run a traditional Black Forest farm. Right after we arrived, they were tending to the animals, so the kids got to milk a cow, feed some rabbits, slop some pigs, and play with goats. Not a bad way to end a long day in the car!

We will be exploring the Black Forest over the next few days, so stay tuned!!