Life goes on - Davis family 2012

I am trying to update this blog to include things from the past five years:
I am now an ordained PCUSA minister - with specialized ministry to chaplaincy (hospital and college).  I finished my residency in hospital chaplaincy at Yale-New Haven Hospital and am working interim positions there while continuing with my ministry to Presbyterian Undergraduates at Yale.
Steve is now tenured at Yale and running two archeological digs in Egypt.
Evanleigh is heading off to college in the fall - most likely Smith!  Will graduate from high school in just a couple of months.
Harrison will be a junior in high school next year at Career High School - participating in debate, golf, math club and physics club.
Rowyn a freshman at Co-op, where Evanleigh went - focusing in vocal music.  She also participates in United Girls Choir, band, and anything musical.

Day 5 -6 - the last days of the Miller visit

Note the extra cool sunglasses that Lindsay sports today!

And the wooden shoes of our guide.


The Windmill - and the mill stone.


The huge hearth - where the all the work of the house was done.




Then - Muenster without the Karnival.

Lindsay pointing out the messenger bag she bought. And one of the many flower stands that catch eye.

The inside of the Dom.

And the knitting. (note how happy and relaxed I seem...)

A GREAT week.

Thursday and Friday - the last days!

Thursday was another exciting day - ranking right up there with Karnival.

The Davis kids went to school by themselves that day (no guests, much to Rowyn's dismay - but we thought that they needed a rest....there's not much sleep going on when those two are whispering into the night!) And the rest of us went first to have a coffee at Floyd's, and to see the Dom (which David missed the day before while we were shopping) and then to the Picasso Museum in down town Muenster - which was extremely cool.

Then we met up with the kids at an open air museum - where they have reconstructed several buildings from representing the area's history. We have a friend we met at the English Club - something our friends, the Emmels, are involved with here - who volunteers there and was willing to do a tour in English. His name was Joseph (see him in the pictures in full costume) and he spent THREE HOURS taking us around! Truly amazing place too - there were buildings from as early as the 1600's that illustrate just how the people lived back then. (Like the farmers who lived in the same barn-like room as their animals...) The place revolved around a wind mill, which was the first building they rebuilt. I guess there used to be 11 windmills around Muenster, and when the last was torn down, the people decided that they didn't want to lose this aspect of their history. So they found an unused one to restore, and rebuilt it on this piece of land. And that was how it started. They have 21 buildings now, and we toured most of them. (even three hours wasn't enough time!) The highlight for most of us was that Joseph took us up into the windmill - something that isn't done in the 'normal' tour offered we think. All in all, it was a big treat, and it helped that the name of the place - Muhlenhof - translates into English, the Miller's yard. Needless to say, Beth Aura bought some mugs for the Miller side of their family and some wooden shoes for the girls. (It was very interesting - as you'll see by the pictures - how Dutch everything seemed. We are less than 100 Km from the Dutch border, and they share a common history with this area.)

Steve had his class again, so the rest of us headed off to Altenberge to a Greek restaurant, the Olive, where we enjoyed wonderful Greek food. (Poor Steve)

Friday, was catch up day. We went to all the places that Beth Aura wanted to get souvenirs - mostly knives! Germans make the best in the world. And Lindsay finally found the messenger bag with the map of Muenster on it that we had been hunting for. David, not wanting to join us for the shopping of course, ventured off to the city museum where he saw displays of the city throughout the centuries.

In the evening, the adults went to a 'Wine and Cheese' party with the English club, while the kids watched a video. It was a lovely party right in the main schloss of town - now a university building. Afterwards, Beth Aura taught us how to knit. She had been working with Rowyn during her nights with Leah, and I figured that I'd better know a least a little so I can help her. Little did we know how much Harrison would take to the needles! So now Rowyn, Harrison and me are all knitting.

That was pretty much it. The Millers left to pack and get ready to go, and the next morning we had a big breakfast before they headed off to Cologne. It was a fantastic week for all of us. Rowyn is soooo sad that Leah has left, but we all look forward to seeing everyone this summer. What a gift to see friends from home.

Pictures from days 4-5

Day 4-5 of the Miller visit

Tuesday was castle day for the Connecticutians.

You might compare these pictures with the ones we took last September when everything was so green. You can see that there is still such a majestic quality to the places even in the leaf-bare winter.

David took dozens of pictures of Castle Vischering - from the 11th century. We all loved the "knight in shining armor"-ness of it all. There was even (weirdly) a Barbie Doll display! Beth Aura and I reminisced together viewing some of the toys we used to play with. (I had only the Barbie Airplane, but Beth Aura had quite a bit more - the town house or hospital one? I can't remember.)

NordKirchen was just as huge as it was last summer - the girls had a great time posing as the statues while Lindsay took pictures. We ended the day eating at our Italian/German restaurant just near our apartment - Zum Rushouse, while Steve had German class in town.

Wednesday was SHOPPING DAY! It was just the 'older girls' today, while Rowyn took Leah to her school for a visit, and our kids went to school as well, and the guys took some time off. We had loads of coffee at our favorite coffee place - Floyd's - and took in the huge Wednesday morning market off the Dom Platz downtown, and then spent the afternoon just soaking it in. It is very difficult to decide what kind of souvenirs to take to family back home, so although we did little actual buying, Beth Aura had a better idea of what was available. Lindsay, actually, did spend her money on some German hard rock music and some very chic sun glasses.

Steve and David met Rowyn and Leah after school and took them to lunch - once again to Zum Rushouse, and had a lovely ramble homewards through the park. After all the touring around during the last two days, it was a very nice break for all! (Except for poor Harrison and Ev at school.)

Pictures from day 3

What the pictures cannot show is how, once the parade started, we were completely pelted by the candy the people on the floats threw at us. David wore a baseball cap and we were all jealous of his protection! There was all kinds of music - everything from German folk music to YMCA (the kids loved it.) And it wasn't just candy - there were small bottles of wine and even flowers. The first float passed out flowers, quite carefully I might add. Beth Aura was one of the recipients. Isn't it gorgeous?

There is my favorite picture that David took (these are all David's pics - he gave us a disc before he left, and he's a much better photographer than I am!) - of the monks checking out the nuns. Hilarious. And then there's us, foot-weary revelers, heading into the pub (brown building on the right)

February Friends - days 3

Monday deserves a posting all to itself.

We went to Karnival - the German version of Mardi Gras, and boy can they celebrate!
We left our apartment to go to the parade, the last of the Karnival celebrations planned before Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent, having no idea of what to expect. As you can see from the pictures, everyone wore a costume (Our costumes? Beth Aura said we'd go as tourists, appropriately enough). There were a lot of people with bottles of beer in hand enjoying very loud music while we waited the two hours for the parade to begin. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves- you just had to be there. David, unbeknownst to us, film much of it on his digital camara and cut and edited it for us later in the week. I'd post it here if I could - we'll just have to show you it once we get home.

After the parade festivities, we left, exhausted, for a pub for a late lunch. The food was nice, but the atmosphere took the cake. They had a fire going, and all the fatty foods and wine certainly helped to warm our very cold bodies. We topped the day off with ice cream from our favorite Italian Ice place in our little suburb of Gievenbeck.

Pictures from Day 1 - 2 of Miller visit

Here are the first day or two of our week with the Millers.

February Friends! A special visit

Long time no write!

Sorry about that, but not much was happening here. We have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of our friends from New Haven, the Millers! Well, the visit has come and gone, and now I can write all about our exciting adventures with them.

They arrived on Saturday, the 18th - extremely and tired, and just a tiny bit frustrated at trying to find our place. (Road signs are just a bit difficult to find, let alone read.) Anyway - they brought us many goodies from home. I now have unsweetened chocolate (brownies in the oven as I write), choc. chips (way too much to use!), lots of cold medicines, books for the kids, and some Yu-Gi-Oh cards especially for Harrison. (He was SO happy.) Our first little venture out into the country-side with them was short - just enough to help them got out into the fresh air and make it until the evening - when, hopefully, they would SLEEP. (Leah didn't sleep at all on the plane, and David got maybe 10 minutes because he was seated beside her.) We took them to see the country house - 'Rushouse' - and family estate - 'Schloss Hulshoff' - of the famous local poetess, Annette Von-Droste-Hulshoff. They managed to get through our chatter over an informal 'abendbrot' (German light meal with meat, cheeses, and bread) and we settled them into our friend's house, the Emmel's, who offered them their house while abroad - bless their hearts! All in all, a nice beginning to our week.

Day 2 - we let them sleep in while we went to church, and then brought them lunch later in the afternoon. We took the opportunity during dessert to celebrate David's birthday from the day before. We invited the next door neighbors over for coffee and cake, and had a nice little chat about living in Germany. Heidi and her two kids, Nicole and Peter, were very informative about the whole educational process here, and they brought over gummi bears for all, a huge success. The weather was still cooperating, so we parents took a little walk around Altenberge to help orientate the Millers to their little village. We actually saw very little of Rowyn and Leah during the week - they were in their own little universe, and loving it!

I'll pause for some pictures.

Pictures of the Black Forest

These are just a few pictures of our stay in the Black Forest -

Harrison, Lord of the skies, at the top of the Belchen mountain.
Then theres the view with the Alps in the very back. (The sea of clouds!)
And the view overlooking our little village of Sallneck - our house is the bottom left one in the center of the picture - and the kids in the field behind the house.
And finally, the hot springs at Bad Bellingen. It was so much fun swimming outside! You can see the little oval jet stream, and all the steam behind Evanleigh. It was lots of fun.

Black Forest Adventure

Greetings all

I now have a few minutes to create an entry about our Christmas here in Germany. We left Muenster on the Friday before Christmas for the south-west corner of the country to a small town called Sallneck. We were just 20 minutes from the Swiss and French borders! It took quite a long time to get there - 9 hours with a long lunch and traffic jam - and we arrived after dark. The view from our little house on Saturday was just gorgeous! No snow, but because the forest is mostly pine, it was storybook pretty.

Our first trip was to some Roman ruins in Switzerland - Augusta Raurica. They had quite a nice museum dedicated to the study Roman lifestyle, including a video showing what it was like to eat then. One screen showed a rich person dining, and the other a poor person. The kids really liked this because of all the gooey, slurpy sound effects. I guess the only utensil they used was a spoon with a sharp, pokey handle to spear things with. (Mostly, they ate with their hands, another point in their favor, according to the kids.) Anyway, we left and attempted to drive home through Basil, and got completely lost. Ah, the frustrations of poor signage. It was late, we hadn't eaten- the kids were protesting for McDonalds. Well, lo and behold, we found the way out and the McDonalds to boot. Steve parked and I ordered and got the kids squared away - the bill? Um....50 euros!!! Steve and I even shared a salad and french fries! UGH.

Sunday was just sunny and beautiful, so we decided to visit a German mountain peak nearby. Not the Alps, certainly, but you can see them from the peak we visited - see picture.
The Belchen peak was only 1400 feet high, but as you looked over to where the Alps towered, it was like looking over a sea of white foam. You could even tell that there wasn't much snow in Switzerland either. Poor skiers! As for Christmas eve, we hooked up with some friends of ours from our Cairo days - Randy and Nancy Capp - who live just 20 minutes away, and visited their church. Nancy teaches at the English-speaking Black Forest academy, so there is quite an English-speaking community there. Anyway, it was fabulous to worship in our mother tongue. (Even if it was a little "dramatic" according to Evanleigh.)

Christmas morning was grey and misty, but this didn't bother us. We opened stockings, played games (we've been stocking up on the great German games here), and had a huge meal complete with turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes! We didn't venture out at all - and although the vacation apartment was teeny-tiny, we enjoyed the time together as a family.

The next few days went quickly - Steve and I hiked for two hours on a trail right behind the house. The Black Forest is just riddled with awesome walking trails. We visited another smaller peak, had dinner at a restaurant overlooking the Alps, and visited a natural hot springs "bath." This last venture was our personal favorite - imagine swimming outside in 38 degree weather! If you look at the picture of Bad Bellingen, you'll notice a sort of oval shaped part of the pool - this was powered by jets that just pushed you along like a river. There was another area where you could lie in the jucuzi-like bubbles. VERY COOL. Although after just 2 hours, I was entirely too water-logged and got out. Anyway, I have never been so relaxed as I was that night going to bed! Ahhhhhhhh, heaven.

So, we've been home now for a week - New Year's Eve here deserves a mention. We decided that the kids are finally all old enough to stay up, so we rented the latest Pirates movie, which was much longer than we thought, and had to pause it when we heard some fire crackers and thought to check the time. Well, as most of you know we live in an apartment complex, and EVERYONE was outside putting off quite strong fireworks! Especially loud, and maybe not as big as say, city fire works, but pretty darn close! The rockets were going off everywhere and in every direction! Honestly, you begin to understand why it's illegal in many states. We watched in fascination as rockets hit the side of our building, went off quite close to people standing near, seemed to bounce off cars...it was very strange. (Especially for what we've come to consider "rule-oriented" Germany.) Anyway, no one seemed to be rushed off to the hospital, no sirens were heard, so....we finished the movie and went to bed in 2007.

The kids go back to school on Monday, and life returns to 'normal' - German lessons, reading, writing, and just general learning. We eagerly await the second half of our sojourn here. We have much to be thankful for!

Pictures of Christmas in Meunster

Steve and Stephen and Barbara Emmel drinking Gluhwein - the mugs are to keep. I guess many people collect these mugs from different markets. The secend picture is the 'Principal Markt' - a very famous street here in Meunster - during the market. And finally, Rowyn got to play the angel bringing good news at her school Christmas play! She had quite a speech to say in German - and did GREAT!! She'll repeat it even now for anyone who asks.

Christmas Adventures

Greetings and Merry Christmas all!

Much has happened in the two weeks since I last wrote. First of all, three of us got a nasty stomach virus that pretty much wiped us out for a week or so - just before we were to leave on our Black Forest vacation. But we managed to get our appetites back in order to enjoy some of the Christmas goodies and events here in Meunster. I found it very interesting to compare how they celebrate the holiday here and how we find it in the US.

First of all, like home, the shopping is pretty frantic. However, The Christmas markets here are something to see - each good-sized town has one. Dotted throughout the old city here, there were rows of stalls selling everything from new gift ideas (artsy jewelry, ornaments, nutcrackers, wooden nick-nacks, etc.) to yummy snacks and drinks (fried brie cheese, lots of wurst, hot sandwiches, and especially - Gluhwein! Hot, very sweet, wine). They opened in the week before Dec. 1, and ran all the way to Christmas. The old city was beautifully and tastefully decorated - not tacky at all - with hanging wreathes of greenery and candles. There were even street singers and bands on the weekends.

What was different for me was the lack of anticipation. In the stores, there is little Christmas music played. In the US, by the time the 25th roles around, I am usually pretty tired of all the little ditties played everywhere. Here, I wish I could hear more. And, there are no special church 'shows' - just a Christmas eve service, usually at 5 or 6 o'clock. I have been singing with a small choir at our church, and when we met during the first week of December, it was to discuss what we might sing at Easter, and there was NO music for the Christmas season at all. We sang Christmas carols as a congregation, but the choir did not sing at all. Given all the preparation that goes into the Christmas choir music at every church in the US, this was a big surpise for me. Although there are advent calendars everywhere, few are religious in nature. I have one from our grocery store with coupons for each day. (A nice idea, that one.) Rowyn has one from her 'W.I.T.C.H.' magazine with pictures of present behind each window. Now, it may be that we are not really connected into German society sufficiently, that we notice this lack of seasonal spirit. However, is it that Christmas should be a personal experience, not so much a corporate one?

In any case, we missed home. We missed our family especially, and our friends, and our church! So. On December 21, we did our Christmas gifts as a family - and left the next day for a week in the Black Forest.

Pictures of Day 3 and 4 (Thuringia)

The fairy grottoes - see 'castle' in upper right.
And Thanksgiving at McDonald's - the kids with McFlurries. (a real treat for them, sadly. :))

Day 3 - 4 in Thuringia and beyond

Our last two days of our little Thanksgiving journey were eventful. We started off the day early-ish on Wednesday to explore a bit of the Thuringian forest by car. Our first stop was Saalfeld - just 30 minutes away - and the famous 'fairy grottoes.' Apparently, this location is in the Guiness Book of World Records for being the world's most colorful cave. You can only visit by taking a tour, which, unfortunately for me and the kids, was in very fast German. Steve tried to translate, but I'm afraid he's a bit unlearned in mining terminology. So we bought a little book at the end and figured out that it used to be an Alum mine, from which they made vitriol. Very little is said about what it's used for other than for paint...but the mine was used as a source for mineral water as well. There was a sample at the end of the tour, and it tasted....minerally. But as you can see from the picture, the grottoe looks like a fairytale castle with surrounding village. When we got to this special cave, they presented a nice sound and light show featuring Enya, of all people, singing the theme from The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. The kids were thrilled!

Our next stop was Lauscha - a glass manufacturing village where the glass eye was invented. We visited one of the factories there and watched them work the glass over a flame into different shapes and colors. We didn't buy anything there though, because I just couldn't picture us getting it home in one piece! They had marbles which I suppose are pretty sturdy, but .... the highlight for us was, believe it or not, a wonderful meal at the cafeteria there! Steve had venison, which we all tried - yummy - and we all had 'knudeln' which are these huge potatoe dumplings. (A specialty for the area, I guess.) They were tasty, but the texture took getting used to. A bit like eating a hot ball of glue.

Then we went to a horse breeding farm deep in the forest in Maura. This is quite famous, I guess, for the Haflinger breed of horse. These are the largest breed of pony, and were bred for work in the mountains and forests hauling wood and such. Because they are smaller than normal horses, they have the ability to walk the narrow paths there, yet are quite strong and hardy for the cold. We got a tour of the place - and the kids loved it.

We then traveled through some gorgeous forests and headed 'home.' We spent our evenings there playing Settler with the kids, watching American movies on tv dubbed in German, and basically just hanging out. (They do a very good job here of matching voices to American actors, actually. I thought that I'd be really annoyed with it, but it's pretty entertaining, really.)

SO - Thanksgiving morning we packed up and drove to Leipzig to drop off Steve at his conference for Von Humbolt scholars, and the kids and I drove on up to Wittenburg to visit the Luther museum there. On the highway (read Autobahn) they had McDonald's restaurants, so we had our Thanksgiving dinner there. (see picture) The kids were obviously thrilled to death about this. As for our visit to Wittenburg, it was raining and getting dark quickly, so we only went to the museum. I hope to go again in the spring to visit the churches there and more of the town. The Luther house is formerly known as the black cloister where Luther lived as a monk. It was then given to him (sort of) later after the monks had departed and he got married. The government spent some 1.7 million Euros for renovated the place, and it was well worth the trip.

Six hours later, we got back to Muenster - and I could write a whole other entry about what it's like to drive the Autobahn in the rain and in the dark. Suffice it to say that I was very happy to get home! (I've had a crik in my neck for a week as a result of that very tense drive.)

All for now! Keep checking in - Christmas markets here are next!!

Pictures of day 2 - Thuringia

The first picture - if you look center left, you'll see our inn, and the second is taken from the center courtyard of the inn.
Then you see the sheep. And that is Evanleigh in the mysterious 'blind' type structure that faces the fields. The first picture is taken standing in front of this. And finally - Steve and Rowyn, cozy under the featherbed.

Thuringia Adventure - Day 2: Our inn

Well - it gets dark SO early these days, (it's definitely dark by 4:15 or so) that we had no idea what our inn looked like until the morning. Steve found the place on the internet - it's apparently a 1000 year old inn that was left vacant for decades, and recently refurbished. The directions the innkeeper gave us were rather vague - go to Kolbia. In center of town is little bridge, take the right and then left uphill....but we managed to find our way. We were way out in the country, and it was pitch black. The only way we figured that it was our accomodations for the week was that the road ended, and there was a little tiny light on in one of the windows. Because we were booked for Monday through Wednesday nights, we had the place to ourselves. Our first impression was that of awe. We had a three story apartment - first floor: great room with kitchen and sitting area, second floor: two bedrooms and full bath, third floor: a huge attic-like bedroom with four beds. The furniture was all light pine, almost shaker in style, and the beds had those European feather beds instead of topsheets and comforters. COZY!

Well, after an AWESOME night's sleep, we looked out the three feet deep recessed windows. The forest was just 1/2 a kilometer behind us, and the rest was gorgeous farmland. We were going to try to travel to Wittenburg to do some more Luther hunting that day, and decided that we needed to just stay put and enjoy. We didn't do much - we explored the farm (complete with sheep, goats, and pony) a bit of the surrounding countryside and a bit of the woods. Although the weather was cloudy, it was still stunningly beautiful. We saw many many tiny treehouse type structures around (see Ev's picture in one) - we thought they might be 'blinds' for hunters or nature watchers, but they were mostly facing the fields...still a mystery.

We did need to go into a nearby town to get some supplies, so we went off in the afternoon hoping to find a horseriding place we'd heard about. We found a dinner spot - not much open - and then, right as the sun was going down, found the horse place. Alas, they weren't able to saddle up the horses until the next day, but they did give us a little tour. The horses were gorgeous! I wish I had the presence of mind to take pictures, but I was just in awe. They were all Palaminos, apparently, and really beautiful. There were also very cute stable dogs that had the kids entranced as well.

All for now - stay tuned for day three!