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The day finally came for us to say goodbye to Germany and start our journey home to Canada. It has been exactly four months since we left Calgary and we had such a great trip in Africa, the Middle East and Europe. We managed to avoid most countries with entry requirements, but still visited a total of 16 countries! By the time we get back to Calgary in three weeks, we would have covered an impressive total distance of nearly 58,000 kilometres! The kids did great on the 21 flights clocking in nearly 80 hours of flight time and while we mostly stuck to our minimum three night stays, we still stayed in a record number of 43 different places. Kilian very much enjoyed the 35 trains rides, most of which always had a delay or some other issue as well as the 5 boat rides, all of which were smooth thankfully for my sake. On a more random note, since we really were prioritizing places with pools so we could enjoy them, we ended up trying out 23 different swimming pools, and Ashleigh and I enjoyed plenty of beers while lounging, 59 different ones to be exact. Traveling with kids through airports can sometimes drag on, so we were glad to have lounge access at most of the airports and checked out 14 different ones. We are both happy to have spent this time as a family, visiting relatives and seeing the world. Kilian is the most curious little boy and Kalina the most vocal, especially when she is hungry which is all of the time. Now that she is moving around a lot, it will be nice to have more space; crawling on tiled floors and learning to walk on them seems pretty daunting.
We still have three weeks of family and friends time planned in Canada, visiting Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto and Winnipeg before finally getting back to Calgary mid July. Let’s hope the rest of the trip is as smooth as the beginning! For now this will be the final blog entry! The weekend was a lot of fun with the heat keeping us entertained by the swimming pool of my relatives. The kids had fun playing and we enjoyed our time chatting. I even managed to go on a short bike ride around Morsbach. Overall I got to spent lots of quality time with my Oma, relatives and good friends. Instead of taking the train the same day as our flight back to Canada, we made the smart decision to arrive in Frankfurt the day prior. The train journey took twice as long as it should have, but we arrived at our friends place excited to catch up. The kids slept for a good two hours while we got to catch up with Laura on the balcony. Laura had many interesting things planned for us, so we started with locally made ice cream before walking to the nearby park. Kilian enjoyed the playground while we hid out under the massive trees. Laura’s husband joined us after work and we barbecued at night. By the time the kids were out, we were ready for some wine and chats. While our time was short it was a lot of fun catching up with old friends.
We were only 45 minutes away from Luxembourg so we decided to check out Luxembourg city for a few hours. The walk to the train station took almost as long as the ride to Luxembourg. When we arrived we aimlessly went for a nice two hour walk around the old city centre. We found a few nice parks as well, but the only playground that we saw was under construction albeit being a very promising one once finished. We didn’t do much in the afternoon, as it was way too hot. We did walk up to a river cruise boat but there was no shade on the top deck and we didn’t want to sit inside sweltering with the kids so we gave up on that option as well. It was a good call since the boat was delayed by quite some time due to a group of still celebrating soccer fans. They did eventually disembark with the help of the police. We watched all of this unfold from a nearby patio while enjoying a cold beer and schnitzel. At night I took Kilian on a walk to wind down and we ended up spending an hour watching a hot air balloon takeoff right by the river which was surely a highlight for him.
The following day we left early to beat the heat and followed the tourist route of Trier. Everything was still closed either because it was to early or because of the holiday so it was very quiet. Regardless, we thoroughly enjoyed the walk to the impressive Roman gateway Porta Nigra and the other highlights along the route, many dating back a couple thousand years. By the time we completed our loop, some tour buses did arrive and shops started to open up. Kilian has been walking a lot despite complaining more than usual. But we manage to give him a break in the stroller once in a while. In the afternoon we found a shady spot by the riverfront and played with the kids while chatting whenever they were occupied. It was another hot day so we were happy to come back to an air conditioned room. We had a great time on our side trip to the Mosel region and are heading back to Morsbach tomorrow for a few more days of family and friends time. We woke up with a bit of a headache, hard not to, when tasting a bunch of different sweet white wines at the vineyards the day prior. After a light bakery breakfast we went on a long walk up the hills through the vineyards. Kilian had the great idea to cut down through a steep one, so Kalina was in for quite the bumpy ride in the stroller. The town is very small and on this particular morning, very quiet. The Schloss Lieser, our beautiful castle for one night does have a tiny pool and a bunch of saunas so we made sure to spend a little bit of time there as well before the kids napped. We checked out late in the afternoon to catch the bus back up to the train station. The train as apparently is often the case now with the Deutsche Bahn was delayed so we didn’t get into Trier until 5pm. We grabbed a quick doner kebab dinner right away before making the walk towards the river front. Besides us there was also a rather large crowd of soccer fans also making their way towards the water, the Mosel stadium to be exact. Little did we know that it was the deciding match for the local team, so we were greeted with loud chanting and plenty of excited fans. Even from our room which is a good few hundred meters away, we could hear the crowds cheering on their home team. The kids went to bed while Ashleigh and I relaxed after an eventful travel day.
We spent quite a bit of time with my family and we were all ready for home cooked meals and lots of playtime for the kids. And that is exactly what we have been up to the last few days. We spent some quality time with all of the relatives, the kids got to play with the other young ones and we had a sense of home. We enjoyed some time with both family and friends and everyone made us feel welcomed. It’s hard to believe it has already been nearly two weeks since we arrived in Germany. After all of the visits we were ready for a small side trip. Initially we planned to hop on another plane, checking out Europe’s north but it didn’t work out. Instead we used our 9 euro train ticket to see more of Germany. We got the 9 euro ticket for the month of June which allows unlimited travel on regional transportation methods, trains and most buses. It already paid off on our trip from Munich; but we figured we might as well see a bit more while we were here. We started our journey to the wine region of western Germany and even though it isn’t very far it still took three trains and a bus to get to the small Mosel river town of Leiser. There isn’t much here, except for the rather unique castle from the 19th century that has been transformed into a high end hotel. We arrived to the quiet town without any problems and were welcomed with drinks into the library of the castle. Kilian confidently asked for fresh orange juice while looking out the window studying the world atlas. There are less than 50 rooms in the place and it seemed very relaxed as soon as we arrived. The castle is overlooking both the river Mosel and the vineyards behind. The kids passed out as soon as we got our top floor upgraded room and I ran over to the nearest locally owned wine store to grab a bottle of white for Ashleigh and I. The owner insisted on a small tasting round so by the time I picked a dry white, I already had a good start to the afternoon. Our room is truly unique, a small suite with two rooms, one massive one for us and a small room for Kilian. The living room is perfect for having a glass of wine while overlooking the steep vineyard. The birds are chirping all afternoon and the peacefulness is relaxing. The kids enjoyed some time on the carpet while Ashleigh and I finished our bottle before heading out for dinner. We did stop for another short tasting before eating some food. The town is super quiet and the walk along the river was exactly what we were hoping for to end the day. It is nice to get out again, and it feels like we are traveling once more even though it’s in somewhat familiar territory. Hopefully there aren’t any ghosts that will keep us up tonight in the castle!
It was time to make our way back to Germany where our trip started in February. Our first stop in Germany is Munich! We woke up to a hazy day and there must have been something burning in the area as it smelled horrible. After breakfast we packed up and since the airport is literally across the road we walked the short ten minutes. Getting through customs took way longer than expected and we forgot to fill out the departure card which delayed it further. Luckily the customs agent said not to worry about it as we were scrambling to fill it out on the spot. Even exchanging back money took way longer than it should have and so by the time we got to the gate we were already boarding. There is a lounge here, but this would be the first time we won’t have a chance to check it out. The plane, an old A320 is in dire need of a good scrubbing as it is quite filthy and probably hasn’t been cleaned in quite some time. Ashleigh did her best to at least disinfect some spots so Kilian could look out the window. The nice part is that the plane is empty and there are just 20 people on it so we have plenty of space and it’s quiet. We did still manage to leave ahead of schedule and Kalina fell asleep immediately as she usually does. We are all excited to go back to Germany to visit friends and family. Besides that we are also in desperate need for some essentials. Kalina is literally down to her last diaper today and we have run out of toothpaste. We were welcomed by our friend Maxi who hosted us for a night and also had diapers ready for Kalina! Our plan was to go to the nearby beer garden for a picnic, but the weather had other plans. It started raining so we only got in a few minutes of playground time before heading back. Dinner was great, the beer tasty and the kids apparently tired. We put them both down early and had great chats late into the evening. While our stay is short it was nice to catch up.
We did get the rest and relaxation we came here for after the rowdy weekend. It was perfect! We started our days early and typically spent some time on the beach to play with the kids before migrating over to the water park. Ashleigh and I had just as much fun zipping down the slides as the kids did. Kalina is terrified of spraying water and unsure of the slides, but Kilian on the other hand goes non stop. He has worked up enough courage to slide down on his own, at least on some Besides splashing around most of the day, we haven’t been doing much else. Tonight we did go out to the a la carte restaurant and since it was Tunisian night we got to taste some great dishes. Even the kids stayed up later than usual munching down on their food. Overall we were glad to have come down for a beach vacation and we feel re energized to continue our journey.
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November 2022
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