Adventures in Bavaria

Ben and I arrived in Munich on the night of Thursday, April 17th. Ben slept through the flight, which was a relief to his mother and the rest of the passengers on the plane. We were greeted with a warm hello from Heidi and Matthias and she even brought us the first of many Bavarian pretzels. We drove one hour to Heidi's parent's house and, again, experienced a warm welcome from her parents, brother, and his friend. It was a late night and I was happy that Ben slept in the next morning.

The next few days were filled with nice walks, meeting Heidi's relatives, long talks, and playing with the boys. We visited Augsberg and Munich and learned a bit about the history of the cities from Heidi. We taught Heidi and Matthias some of our favorite English songs and learned some German words and customs from them.

It was fun to see the differences and similarities in Ben and Matthias. The boys make the same sounds, but while Ben is content to sit and play with toys...Matthias loves to pull and roll himself around searching for all things electrical! Both are happy, adorable little guys.

Highlights of our trip included: learning that people still dress in traditional Bavarian garments and seeing some of these dresses, visiting the Hofbrauhaus, bathing the boys together, "breadtime," seeing the Rathaus in Munich, our souvenirs, and...did I mention all of the chatting?

The flight back to Sweden was mostly uneventful (except for the diaper explosion that took awhile to clean up--thankfully it happened with 1hr 10 min left in the flight). Ben was quite patient on the train to Uppsala and was so so excited to see Josh waiting for us at the station.

Thank you to Heidi and her family for making us feel so comfortable and taking such good care of us. Thanks especially to Heidi's uncle for the ice bear and mouse car, her mother for making turkey schnitzel, and to her father for the piglet cutting board.

Josh said that Ben got bigger while we were gone. He also noticed that Ben is more squirmy and even more "vocal" about what he wants. I think that Ben also copies my movements more often. This morning he put his new mouse car on my back--I have been driving the car up and down his body lately.

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the trip.






To see the rest of the pictures go to the Germany photos Picasa link.