Dreams are made of this stuff...

I keep wondering why I assumed that Austria would be just like Germany. Consequently I expected to derive similar value from the capital of Austria. I owe the city a huge apology. It not only proved me wrong but it also gave me an incredibly beautiful treat on the first day of the tour. I think it was all the more magical because it happened to be my birthday.

The city has surprises in store at each corner. Literally. Breathtakingly lovely monuments with awe-inspiring facades, palatially wide streets, a deep-rooted cultural history that makes it the legendary stuff that dreams are made up of. Oh how we marveled and oomphed and just roamed the city awe-struck, re-discovering love together the whole day! No amount of photos could capture that feeling!

At each turn when we thought there cannot be anything more beautiful, there was another and yet another. The domkirche, various fountains, opera house, imperial palace complex, minoritykirch, parliament building, war memorial, university - a beautiful city with modern transport, lush green and spotlessly clean, and new architecture that blends into the old with surprising ease.

I loved loved loved this place. Thank you Vienna for that unforgettable birthday experience!

Our very hungry caterpillar

Keya is fascinated by the Very Hungry Caterpillar story by Eric Carle. I find it equally lovely too. We don't have the book yet, but we have a caterpillar puzzle that has been gifted to us by a friend. And we watch the story online at least once a day at this site: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/u/online-storytime-books-toys/379003588/ (third story in this list).

This morning we decided to make a caterpillar out of bottle lids. I've been collecting them for ages now and have quite a large collection of various colours and sizes. I got the idea from another blog and here is the product, based on whatever raw material we had at home.

We first tried sticking the lids together but it would not work due to the grooves on the lids. Also realised that sticking would not make the caterpillar flexible enough to crawl around. Then I found these small plastic coated wires that come twirled around electric appliances. I made holes in the lids on opposite sides and used little pieces of the wires to hold the lids together. That way they stay together and the caterpillar can really move and crawl around. Avoided the temptation of adding too many lids. Used a piece of a pipe cleaner for the antennae. Have stuck some clay for the eyes until I can buy googly ones or think of something else around the house for eyes.

Now we are having fun taking our caterpillar around the house and making it eat through a lot of food... hthe poor little thing's bound to have a stomach ache by tonight! :)

Vogtsbauernhof Museum in the Black Forest

Sometimes you hear about places and build your own expectations. And when you visit those places you are either delighted or disappointed depending on which way the place turns out vis-a-vis your imagination.

Last Saturday marked my first visit to the "Black Forest" guided by one of our friends here. I had a rosy, romantic idea of the "Schwarzwald". I always imagined lazy, laid back villages with music, food and chivalry; nature at its best and traditions at their richest. I was elated by what I saw. The picture fit with that in my imagination seamlessly.

Our destination this time was the Black Forest Museum or the Schwarzwälder Freilichtmuseum Vogtsbauernhof. We traveled to Freundenstadt, and then rode the Schwarzwaldbahn up to Wolfach. The connectivity from Wolfach turned out a bit problematic. The bus stop was supposedly in the town and when we went there we realised that it had shifted to the station, bringing us back to precisely where we had alighted earlier. In the bargain we missed a bus and could get the next one only an hour later. No labour lost though. We reached by mid-day. There wasn't a very large crowd at the ticket counter and we got in swiftly.

The museum is an open air place, with exhibits housed in life size erects. Whether the labourer's cottage or the worksheds or the mills, you get to see everything as it was earlier. There are plenty of demos though their timings are a bit awry. We could not catch the ones on the mill or the black forest cooking because we reached too late in the day. We had two kids with us but they enjoyed too thanks to farm animals and a few play things that caught their interest. It was a little bit difficult to move around with a stroller since we had to leave it outside the houses and then come back to retrieve it since the exits were almost always at the back. Overall it made for a fine day outside with lots of learning.

The icing on the cake, literally, was the black forest torte that we ordered at the restaurant. It was mouth-wateringly delicious, lusciously filled with cherries, soft cream that melted in the mouth, laced with just enough rum. I think that taste is going to linger in my mouth for a long time to come.

Blown away in the sand!

I find the whole concept of the 'spielplatz' or play area here in Germany somewhat unsatisfying. That being the gist of it, let me list down what I like and what I don't.

What I like:
- Each area has at least one spielplatz. It is the responsibility of the local Rathaus or the civic office to ensure that. And they take that job very seriously.
- Each spielplatz caters to children of all ages. From activities for babies and toddlers to basketball courts for  teenagers, there is something in it for everyone.
- Equipment is well designed, safety standards are very high.
- Each spielplatz is unique. You won't find one like another. Very innovative, thoughtful games. E.g. An excavator replica to sit and try out, crocodile spring to jump on, basket swings, maze of pipes.

Now you may wonder where the unsatisfying part comes in! Then let me tell you my issues with these:

- My biggest problem is that all spielplatz have sand on the flooring. This seems mandatory. Children carry their sand toys e.g. pails, shovels, moulds and play in the sand. What's wrong with that you may ask. Nothing. It's a great way to improve co-ordination, motor skills, etc.etc. But my observation is that a child is ONLY playing with the sand for about 80 percent of the time that s/he spends in the ground. I find that very troublesome.
- Let me also mention that the sand never gets cleaned. (How can it?) Which means it's not the most hygienic or ideal surrounding for a child. Especially when it rains, the sand can remain wet for more than a day after.
- Play things are just not adequate. There is mostly just one slide, one swing and one other out of a see-saw or a merry-go-round or a small house. I can't imagine that sustaining a toddler's attention for more than a few minutes at a time, which basically gets us back into the sand each time.
- The baby/toddler area is mostly not properly fenced. Which means you cannot afford to let the child off sight for even a minute.

Now I like to take my daughter out to the ground so that she can get some physical activity, let off some steam, get some organized exercise. With most children around her just sitting around and digging, I find it impossible to continuously prod her alone to swing or slide.

There are two spielplatz around our house but I find my motivation to take my kid to either of those totally waning for the aforementioned reasons. There are several other play areas scattered around the city and these days with the superb weather, I've started taking the kiddo to a new place each time. Hopefully that will give us both some different stimulation each time!

I want to make a studied comparison here with the situation in another developed country so as not to sound like I am cribbing without a reason. When we were in France, we went to at least three play areas in two different cities. Play areas were really 'play' areas. The ones we went to were nicely fenced with just one or two gates. There was this very beautiful soft matting all over, not sand, which made it equally safe for the child and so much easier to clean/maintain. There were so many different kinds of play equipment that my child refused to leave even after an hour (mind you, without sand). Mothers could hang around on the benches lining the sides and keep an eye. They didn't have to be constantly on their toes wondering where the child might run away to next.

With more Europe trips coming up, I find myself just as enthusiastic as the kiddo to visit play areas in different cities/countries. My checklist is ready for comparison.

The ruins at Calw, and a Saturday ruined

The monastery ruins at Calw/Hirsau near Weil Der Stadt have five-star reviews at travel sites. Read those and your expectations can really soar. Like in the case of all our trips, even the day ones, I had spent hours going over various sites and finding information. All in vain it felt as soon as we got there.

I think this was the first place in Germany that I was truly disappointed with. One look and I felt like returning right away. The monastery ruins are very old, and the complex has been built starting the 1st century and added to thereon. You would expect a certain, almost pious feeling at such a place. But what do we find there? A beer festival was expected that evening and preparations were on in full swing right across the Marienkirsche, with half the area cordoned off for it. Weird!

The most majestic part of the ruins were under restoration. Which meant no access to those either. They were completely covered with cloth and scaffolding. Pity there was no mention of the restoration or the beer festival on the website which I checked just the day before we went there!

Now comes the strangest part. There was a bus-stop right across the ruins. We just missed a bus and there was no bus for the next two hours! The main railway station is 2.5 kms away. Reluctantly we started trekking back. Stopped on the way at the Kloster museum. That one is interesting, some bits in English. But nothing marvelous. Or may be we were already psyched with the place by then. Luckily we found the Hirsau railway station 500 meters away and got a train to Pforzheim in 15 min.

Itchy madness

I've been down with a severe skin allergy. It started suddenly about a week ago. I woke up scratching and realised I had these red bumps all over my legs. Took an anti-allergic and went back to sleep thinking all would be well. Like hell!

It has now been 8 days. The rash comes and goes, spreads to different parts of my body, is variedly itchy and has basically taken over my life and my mind. At first I was hesitant to see a doctor for something that silly (I am the types who think doctors exist only for life threatening circumstances). So I put off what seemed like an increasingly inevitable visit, trying out some home remedies and reading up what was available on the Internet.

Last night it became unbearable and I finally dragged my itchy self to a doctor this morning. The doctor was a pleasant young man, and thankfully spoke some English while I conversed in broken German using words I'd pre-derived from Google Translate. The appointment itself turned out better than my expectation.
The outcome didn't.

The doctor basically told me I had to be "my own detective" and use trial and error to determine (out of thousands of possibilities) the reason for my allergic skin rash. It could be just about anything: food, water, deos, mites, detergents, sun exposure (The hilarious part was that he kept comparing life in Germany to that in Sri Lanka in spite of at least two sheepish mentions from me that I am from India!). I was told that once I figured out, I would figure it out for life! Liked that... Though for the life of me, if only I knew how to do that.

The only silver lining of that visit was that he confirmed that the rash was not infectious and thereby not contagious. Don't have to worry about P or the kiddo catching it.

Hmm. So begins a journey to a very fuzzy end. Wherein lies an itch-free, rash-free night. Don't know when or how I will achieve that. Need luck! Wish me some, please!