Eventually we hopped off the bus and spent the next several hours walking around the older part of town. We also hiked up to the fortress that overlooks the city. It was quite the steep walk to the top! We had intended to take the cable car up, but somehow missed the entrance and by the time we realized it we were almost at the top anyway.

Our second day in Salzburg the four of us headed just outside the city, actually crossing back into Germany, and took a tour of Eagle’s Nest, which was one of Hitler’s getaways. It’s a small house at one of the highest points in the mountains in this area. We drove to the place where you catch a bus up the windy road. Then you walk through a cave-like walkway to an elevator that takes you to the very top. The view was gorgeous from the top. You could see Salzburg in the distance, along with the lake we would head to next. We hiked and climbed on the rocks and enjoyed the view for an hour before heading back down.

Next we headed back down the mountains to a beautiful lake. We took a ferry across the lake, which gave us more great views of the mountains around us, along with a few waterfalls that went into the lake. The ferry dropped us at an area that had lots of hiking trails, so I took a quick hike before we had to head back. From the looks of it we could have spent days hiking there, but unfortunately we were coming to the end of our day already.

We stopped for what ended up being the best meal of the trip on the way back to our hotel. We were in a small, German town that we passed through along the way. There was a restaurant with a packed parking lot, so we figured it had to be good, and it was! We were probably the only English speakers there, so it was nice to know we were at a more traditional place. It was a delicious German meal (even though the entire process took several hours!)

It was a nice, easy drive into Munich, and it was beautiful because you start to move into the mountainous part of Germany. Traffic definitely picked up along the way. Our first stop was a traditional beer garden. We had a map that marked many of the beer gardens, so we just picked one out that was in the middle of a very large park. Enjoying a few hours here was another highlight of the trip. It was a gorgeous park that we walked through to get to the beer garden, which consisted of hundreds of picnic tables. Only alcohol available was beer of course! So we enjoyed a few liters, along with some bratwurst and mashed potatoes. Lunch of champions! They had a band playing and everyone was dressed in traditional lederhosen. It was just as you’d hope Oktoberfest would be like. And since it was early in the day it wasn’t flooded with people, although it was busy. After finishing our food and drink we decided to head into old town to walk around the square for a bit.

Anna and I took several hundred stairs (way too many to count) to the top of a tower that had a great lookout over the main square and all of Munich. You could see the mountains in the background, but it was a little hazy so not perfectly. Ryan and Anna had been up there before and said sometimes the view is even more amazing than when I was up there. We spent the next few hours just walking around old town, through the farmers market and around all the old churches that line the main street. It was a gorgeous city.

But it was totally overrun with people. There’s no doubt Oktoberfest is a huge draw here! You were dodging people constantly. One of the wonderful things about the other cities in Germany we had visited up to this point is the quaintness, and small-town feel you get in all the town centers. Couldn’t quite enjoy that in Munich as much because it was so busy. But it was a spectacle that I’m happy I can say I got to experience.

Before I had started to research Oktoberfest much, I would have thought that is was all about places like the beer garden we visited earlier in the day. But come to find out, the true Oktoberfest is actually a big state fair-like deal. With rides, games and everything you’d expect at a carnival. On top of that they have huge beer gardens set up on the fair grounds, but it is so packed with people you can’t even get in unless you get there very early in the day. So after talking with friends who had been before, we came to the conclusion this wasn’t for us. The beer gardens in the city, not on the fair grounds, were of more interest to us. But we decided on our way out of town to Salzburg we’d do a quick drive-by to see if we could just peak at the spectacle that is “true Oktoberfest.” We ended up with a really close parking spot, amazingly, so decided to run in for a few minutes. Talk about overcrowding. You couldn’t even walk with your group because you were constantly dodging people. It was a total madhouse, but again something I’m glad I got to see!

My advice to someone interested in Oktoberfest: go a few weeks before the real festival. The real beer gardens are always set up in Munich, and that felt like the true German experience to me, and was so enjoyable. The festival at the fair grounds was rather miserable if you ask me!

So, next stop is Salzburg, and we headed on our way. This was the roughest drive we had because the traffic was terrible. No doubt some others were doing just what we were doing. But eventually we made it to our hotel in the mountains, where we’d spend the next three nights.

Our next stop was Nuremberg. It was probably a three hour drive from Postsdam, but driving on the Autobaun is an amazing way to drive. Straight, smooth road all the way. I’d guess we were driving around 85 mph, but cars were flying past us. Easily hitting 100. With all the BMWs and Audis in Germany, not to mention Ferraris and other amazing cars, you can’t blame them for driving fast!

We got to Nuremberg and checked into our hotel, and then the four of us headed to the big Nazi museum. The museum is built into part of a Nazi structure that is still standing. It’s part of a collusieum-like complex where they would hold huge Nazi rallys. We spent a few hours there and then headed into old town Nuremberg.

We had a nice, traditional German dinner: sausages, potato salad and huge pretzels. And beer, of course. We spent the rest of the day/evening walking around the old town and up to an old castle at one of the highest points in the city. Great sunset views.

The next morning we headed back into the old town for some coffee before heading to Munich. We drank our coffee along the river that runs through the town and grabbed chocolate croissants for breakfast. It was short visit to Nuremberg, but it was a wonderful place to stop and ended up being one of my favorite old towns that we visited.

Also, here’s a little preview of her Halloween costume! We’re going simple this year in hopes that she’ll actually wear it! The girl is very, very picky about what she’s wearing! So something super costumey would never work. So she’s going as a ghost, consisting of a white tutu and a ghost shirt. So hoping I can get her to put it on for boo at the zoo later this week and for school on Monday! We’ll see… got her to try it on by bribing her with her vitamin. (She LOVES to take her vitamins, so they often come in handy when we need her to do something!)

I think we saw just about everything! The tour took us to many of the buildings and sites involved in WWII, the Cold War and the division of east and west Berlin. Or at least what is left of many of the sites. We saw the piece of the wall that’s still standing, Checkpoint Charlie and a few buildings that still stand that were put up by the Nazis. We stood above the bunker Hitler was in when he killed himself and saw their Holocaust Memorial. And we ended the tour at Brandenburg Gate. It is truly a fascinating city and maybe the single most historic place I’ve ever visited. We were exhausted by the end of the tour!

After the tour we walked some more until we found a nice place for dinner. After filling up on steak and salad (not exactly our most German meal) we grabbed a cab back to the hotel. I hit the pool and steam room before collapsing for the night! The next morning we walked around our hotel, which was near all of the embassies, and had breakfast at a small bakery. The pastries were amazing everywhere in Germany. We walked along the fringe of Berlin’s “central park” for a short time before hitting the road for Potsdam.

The weather was gorgeous each and every day we were there. Almost always sunny and in the 70s. Ryan and Anna swear they aren’t lying when they say the weather is cool and dreary in Poland. So we couldn’t have been luckier in that department. For me the trip started with a 10-hour plane ride from DFW to Frankfurt, Germany. Here I had a four block of time to kill before catching a train to my brother’s city, Poznan, Poland. I was in a bit of a daze after the long flight and time difference, but I wanted to at least see a little of the city. So I took the train from the airport to the main train station, right in the city center. For the next couple hours I just walked around. Frankfurt is a huge city along a beautiful river. Race for the Cure happened to be going on that day, so it was also a busy city this particular Sunday. I walked to the river, where supposedly a lot of their museums are located. Didn’t have time to check any of them out, but it was a great setting.

That’s basically how I filled my little layover, strolling around in whatever direction looked interesting to me. Before heading back to the train station I stopped at a Starbucks to email Jason and let him know I had made it to Germany. This is one of the things that stunned me throughout my trip. Almost every single city we visited had a Starbucks. I would usually refuse to visit an American chain while traveling abroad, but like in the U.S., they all had free wifi. So this was a great way for me to keep in touch with home. I studied abroad in London for a semester in college, and probably talked to my family twice the entire time and had to take a train to get to free internet, so times have sure changed for the better in this department!

Next was my seven-hour train ride to Poznan. What I was able to stay awake for was really pretty countryside. Daylight stayed through my train change in Berlin, but I couldn’t see much beyond that stop. Mom and Ryan were there to pick me up when I got off the train, and after stopping back and he and Anna’s apartment the three of us headed out for a drink in Poznan’s square. Poznan really is a neat city, with a really pretty square lined with restaurants and beautiful buildings. After my long day of traveling I crashed when we got back to Ryan’s apartment and didn’t get up until 10 the next morning.

We spent the next day in Poznan, where Ryan showed us some of his school buildings and some of the other areas they spend time in in Poznan. We tried some Polish beer at another restaurant right on the square. And we ended the day with Anna cooking us dinner! This was great, especially since we’d be on the road for the next nine days.

35 inches tall: 78 percentile (once again she was very resistant to lying down for this measurement, so I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s not right on!)
28 pounds: 66 percentile
49 cm head: 95 percentile

Her talking has been especially great lately, so we’ve been really excited about that. She is constantly talking in sentences (although not grammatically correct like her newspaper parents would like), sometimes with as many as seven or eight words. She’s gotten so easy to communicate with, which is really exciting and makes everything from meals to playing much easier. I wouldn’t even be able to count how many words are in her vocabulary, and almost every day she pulls out a new word that we had no idea she knew. It’s definitely a fun time in her life. Some of the cuter/funnier things she’s been saying and doing lately:

Holy cow! (Could be a lot worse than that, right!?)

So happy/so sad: She’ll often say something like “Maya share ball make mama so happy.” So she understands that sharing makes me happy, but she still doesn’t always follow through! Working on that. On our way up to the office to see dad, she’ll also say “dada so happy see Maya.” And sometimes she’ll just tell us that “Maya so happy.” It’s very sweet.

Counting: She can count to 18! She has impressed us! She always skips a number or two along the way, so it isn’t quite perfect, but pretty close. We’re only up to about D on the ABCs, but she does like to sway and sing the tune of the ABC song. Speaking of singing, if you ask her to sing a song she’ll sing the happy birthday song, usually saying “happy birthday to Maya and Aidan,” her birthday buddy.

Can’t help but include this one: After she farts, and I ask her what she says, she’ll say “excuse me.” (More like scuse me.) But then a second later, this one is courtesy of dad, she’ll say “booya!” Working on breaking her of this habit. Thanks, dad.

Elmo and Yo Gabba Gabba are her favorite shows to watch these days. (I find Gabba especially painful to sit through.) So she often will say “Maya watch Elmo” or “Maya watch Gabba” to ask to watch. Sometimes I try to avoid Sesame Street because it seems to annoy her. She only wants to watch Elmo, so if they go to a bit with another character she gets very irritated and repeats “Maya watch Elmo” over and over until he comes back on.

When we’re driving home (or anywhere, really): “Maya no see our house yeeeeet” or “Maya no see mama work yeeeet.”
We could listen to that drawn out “yet” over and over. Sometimes she’ll also draw out “nooooooo” in the same sing-songy voice when we ask her questions. And when we finally do get to our street, she’ll say “Maya see Frank house.” Frank is our neighbor. And she’ll say “Maya see Joey, Peanut house.” Our other neighbors, Jon and Katie, have cats Maya loves named Joey and Peanut. So I guess they get to claim that house.

She always wants to help turn out the light when she’s going to bed, and one of the switches controls the fan and the overhead light. We typically have that light turned off at the fixture so the fan can still be on while she sleeps. So, when turning that switch, she used to say “No work” because the light didn’t come on. At some point, that evolved to “Dada fix (to)morrow”. So every, single night, she says “Dada fix tomorrow.” Still hasn’t been fixed!

When she doesn’t want a new diaper, which is most of the time: “Maya no new di-poo (diaper)”

Her go-to word is definitely “apple.” When we ask her what she wants to eat, or what she did at school, or what color something is, the answer is frequently apple.

We’ve been enjoying the cooler weather lately, although hoping for the temperature to drop another 10 degrees sometime soon, so took some cute photos of her at the park the other day. Enjoy!

Then the day they headed back to the cities with Maya, we did a 13-mile hike along the Superior Hiking Trail from Gooseberry Falls to Split Rock Lighthouse State Park. We were pretty dead by the end! It had been awhile since we’d hiked so far, but the peace and quiet was great. We saw very few other people along the way, aside from a few backpackers. And we got to enjoy a few great views of the lake. That night we recovered with a nice, long dinner since we were on our own for a night!

The next day, before heading home, we drove up north a little farther to Tettegouche State Park where we again did a hike, but this time only a few miles to the two main waterfalls.

Here are the kiddos in the big photo (l to r): Margo Enebo, Charlie and Lucy Menschner, Natalie and Henry Gustafson, Hunter and McKenna Miller, and little Miss Maya. (Wyatt Schulz is in the other photo running away from the photo. He wanted nothing to do with it all!)

Oh, and you can tell by the sweat Maya’s hair is drenched in it wasn’t so cool that day!