And....We Are Back!!!

I have decided to take the blog public again, if you are like me it hasn't been taken out of your Reeder yet so hopefully it isn't much of a hassle. I totally freaked out at some weird traffic and made it private really quickly, now that I have had some time to think here are a few reasons we are going back public -

1. I have been assured by a friend who profiles websites for her job that it was indeed a spambot that was checking my blog 8 times a day and not creepy dude in a basement. I will figure out how to get rid of it and my readings should go back to normal (my Utah readings are still high, my SIL claims credit, I think it was a bit more than just her but it was really the TN address that freaked me out)

2. I use this blog to keep in touch with so many that we left in the states - our life is weird right now, we have moved but are coming back so not really "moved on" and I know I feel more connected to those that I left in CA and in TX so I am hoping it makes the transition a little easier. This is my social outlet for right now and making it private just makes it harder.

3. Biggest reason we are going public - I had the following conversation with my own husband

Me: Hey, I hope you are ok with the blog going private (he had been in Geneva when I changed it)

J: Yeah. I mean, I wont really read it, but it is fine.

Me: What?!?

J: Well, it is just too much of a hassle to go to the actual page, I normally check in reeder on my phone. It is fine though if it makes you happy.

So basically if my husband cannot be bothered to check out pictures of his own child on our family blog then I should probably switch it back... Although I do totally understand his point, I do most of my checking on my phone these days (it is harder for Hadley to pull down).

Again sorry for the confusion, this is one more lesson why decisions shouldn't be made at midnight in the Teuscher house. But still coming is a post about my parents trip and our travels through Austria, Germany and Switzerland - I am still in the process of detoxing from eating my weight in bread, butter and nutella. Hope all is well with you and yours!

Fussen, Germany

The next morning we drove down to Fussen, Germany. It is about a 1.5 hour drive from Salzburg. We wandered around the town and through the shops that night and then headed up to the castles the next morning. It was another gorgeous city.

There wasn't much to see in the town, this was one of the little bridges on the outskirts. They did have this amazing wood store. Literally looked like they found a piece of wood in the woods, grabbed an old rake from their shed, tied them together with string and tried to sell it. Maybe tourists really will buy anything?

Lovely artwork in our hotel. The hotel actually was pretty nice, but this is apparently what they thought we would like to wake up to...

The next morning we started by walking to the lower castle, Hohenschwangau. Still can't even come close to pronouncing it. The trails and castles were not stroller friendly so Jamie lugged our 25 lb loaf of love around in the ergo (we have a backpack thing but it was too hard to take on the plane). We tried on the back, but she just didnt look comfortable...

The castle from below, the tour was very informative and about 30 minutes. We were able to see many of the gifts that the King received, I think Jamie wants to be a King for the gifts alone.

View from the Castle into the countryside

We then took a bus up to Neuschwanstein, the one said to be the inspiration behind Disney's Cinderella castle, and you can see why!! This is from Mary's bridge, just a short walk from the drop off point.

On our way to the castle

Right up in front.

It also was a very informative tour and the inside work was amazing, they even had a room that looked like the inside of a living cave! We didn't realize that it had never been completed, I guess he died before it was finished and because he was in so much debt they opened it 5 weeks later to the public. The tour was good but it had to be the worst tour group ever - they have a set amount of people per group but there was a large group of teenagers that missed their group and tagged along with ours and then another group that was supposed to be doing an audio tour asked if they could just had their guide translate. So we spend the whole time dodging euro teens with justin beiber hair and skinny jeans and trying to stay out of the way of the pushy tour guide that needed to be in the front and then would run to the back and translate for her group while we waited.

We had switched the ergo to the front, looked like it worked for our tired baby. She saw the inside of the castle just like this.

We took the horse drawn carriage back to the bottom of the hill, Hadley loved looking out at the scenery.

In front of the horses, earlier she couldn't take her eyes off them

Our one family photo

I was trying to get a quick picture of Jamie and a young german man wanted to know if we wanted a family one, so very nice!

We took off from the castle to drive down to Switzerland. Jamie was so great to do all of the driving and navigating.

Salzburg, Austria

We started off our trip by flying into Munich and driving over to Salzburg which is about 2 hours away. I booked tickets for 8 am to save money, sounded like a good idea at the time but at 4:30 in the morning it seemed really dumb. We had to get there early to return our car (have I mentioned our car situation? Jamie was promised a car and the leasing program got messed up - so their solution? Rent from Avis. Yes, for the last 8 months we have rented a car from Avis. There are perks, like trading it in when we need a bigger car and not having to worry about transport to the airport. We dont pay for it but it is still crazy, we offered to buy a car but their policy does not allow them to reimburse us so we let them pay Avis and Jamie is now a platinum member with free rentals)

The flight went well and as we drove out of the city we were shocked at how just gorgeous Germany is. When I was planning the trip I kept looking for specific things to go see and there just didnt seem alot of "sights" like I found in Paris. As soon as we got on the road it made sense, alot of Germany is just being in Germany. We drove on the Romantic Road, and it deserves the name, we wish we could have captured the beauty with the camera but we cannot do it justice.

We got into Salzburg and stayed at a little hotel close to center of town, the entire trip we had great luck with our hotels. I did a ton of research using Rick Steve's and Trip Advisor and we had great experiences. In every hotel there was a queen/king size bed but each person got their own comforter, loved it! Jamie is always too hot and I love to "cocoon" so it worked out nicely.

We wandered around the town and had Doner Kabaps - they were amazing! In my head I had heard they were kabobs and was expecting skewered meat, these were amazing sandwiches! Went back the next day...also had one of the best pizzas I have ever eaten in Salzburg. I was so shocked but they said there is a ton of Roman/Italian influence and there were Italian restaurants everywhere, so maybe that explains it? Or else I have lived in England too long...

We thought about doing the Sound of Music bus tour, but I would rather be flexible with Hadley so we picked a few sights to go see on our own and then did the town tour out of the book. Ok, onto the pictures....

Massive Roman inspired fountain.

One of the rulers was hoping to make Salzburg the Rome of the North, I guess he got pretty close but then fell out of favor. There was a glockenspiel in the same plaza that we timed to arrive when it was supposed to go off - turns out this one was just bells, no dancing dolls.

Salzburg Cathedral.

We ended up there the day after Easter and they were holding mass in the morning. We were able to see the deacons/priests exit the building, it was really impressive. The actual building is gorgeous and if you look closely, the fountain of Mary lines up with angels on the Cathedral to appear as though they are crowning her from where I am standing on the edge of the plaza.

St Peter's Cemetery

One of the prettiest cemeteries I have ever seen (not that I have seen alot...) but each plot is like a mini garden. The catch is that your family is expected to pay rent on the plot, so after a few generations nobody remembers you and the payments stop. You get booted and a new person gets the spot, most people in this really old cemetery were within the last 100 years.

Hohensalzburg Fortress

We took a train up the side of the hill (literally straight up) to the fortress

View from the fortress, beautiful city

We drove out to a few of the lakes in the musical, Jamie really wanted to and I was so glad he insisted. It was gorgeous, you could see straight to the bottom and was a bright blue. It was right in the mountains, our pictures don't even get close to how pretty it is.

Picture of the town at the lake. We pretty much felt that we should try ice cream in each town we visited, this one had the best vanilla gelato

Second Lake, so picturesque.

We didn't hear the hills sing, but we were so glad we headed out to Salzburg.

The New Blog Story

Thanks for coming to the private blog!! I have a few requests for my definition of "creepy" and it really isn't that interesting. I never loved having a public blog, it was one reason that it took me so long to start one, I don't like not knowing who my audience is and the idea of random strangers reading my blog. I told myself that - really, who is going to read it if they are not my friend??? Multiple pictures of my child + detailed updates of our daily life is about as exciting as grass growing. I do love how it feels like it is easier to keep in touch and having accounts of everyday life with Hadley that wouldn't have made it into my actual journal.

After I started the blog I put a feedjit on the side, it let me know where people were from when they viewed (I know it doesnt take into account google reeder) and at the beginning could I normally tell who was viewing it. Over time there were more and more views from places I didn't recognize - not a big deal, I figured it was friends of friends or people that I had known before that found their way to it (again, I am not that interesting so I assume only people I know would care). In the last 2 weeks though my traffic shot up a ton from all sorts of places, although the main place was Utah weirdly enough. I know about 5 people in Utah. The part that got me though was a Tennessee address that would show up about 6-8 times a day, at the beginning I figured maybe it was someone reading archives (I have been known to do this with total strangers...) so I wasnt worried. After a week had passed and I was still getting anywhere from 3-8 times a day I figured they had already read the archives and I was just creeped out. I have heard that spam is regular intervals (could be total internet myth) and this was erratic but multiple times so basically I just decided to pull the blog. My friend had taken her blog private and did her set up like you see mine, where you can still get updates from a public blog (teuschertravels.blogspot.com if it isnt in your reeder) that tell you to go check out the private one. That is my biggest complaint with private, I forget to go check and remember every few months to catch up. So combined with my being less than thrilled with randoms on my blog, and my friend's creative idea I made it private. .....and this concludes my rather boring story of how we went private. We will see how it goes, hopefully it isn't too much of a pain. We are so far away and have friends all across the US, I love how I can still feel a bit in touch.

Friday in Town with Grandma

My mother is here for another week and Jamie is in Geneva for a few days so we have all day to do whatever we desire. We headed into town after naps and made a few fun purchases.

No trip would be complete without a stop at the local patisserie to grab an Easter treat. Every holiday they do special desserts and my mother talked me into trying one.

All purchases are wrapped and tied with a bow

Easter chick!

Made of chantilly cream, blueberry compote and white sponge. Even the shell is made of white chocolate - cannot wait to try it!

We then stopped in at the new candy shop in town, we wouldn't want the new owner to feel unwelcomed. I was not disappointed with walls of chocolate, lollipops, gummies and even something called "sugar mice" which are basically just that - mice shaped sugar with color but no flavor. They are apparently traditional treats at Christmas, I have a high sugar tolerance, but even these might do me in.

Picked up a mix of typical british candy, maybe we will try the mice another day

We stopped in a few of the boutiques to check out the sales. I am still woefully underprepared for the cold and felt justified in my purchase of a cute new coat for half off. I am normally not into what "number" I wear but I have to admit that trying/buying clothes in a size that is 6 digits higher than I typically wear is taking some getting used to.

Love the hint of green polka dots!

The sun was shining and it was a beautiful walk, we are hoping Grandma never has to leave!

Here's Your Sign

Most days I feel like I need a sign - no not the Stupid Sign (does anyone outside the south know about these?) but more of a -

Actually Considered a Competent Member of Society in the US of A

An American that has been here for 5 years explained the other week that the most frustrating part of moving here was the feeling of incompetence that comes from being in another country. She nailed my feelings exactly, because we obviously speak the same language there really isn't an understanding that we might not quite know their culture or be comfortable with the everyday differences. I feel like telling people I was actually quite on the ball, just not apparently not here....

Here are a few experiences from just last week -

I informed a woman at church that I did not own a laminator and earned a look of complete scorn, after asking another nicer looking woman...everyone has them here and I was told I should purchase one (um, no)

Stood paying for my groceries and in a moment of forgetfulness didn't pack up my purchases...until again I was given a look of surprise since I was holding up the line from the checkout lady. Here you pack up all of your groceries while the clerk sits in a comfy chair and barely counts out the money for you. The customer service view is a bit different here, it is typically very hard to find someone to help in stores unless it is a boutique.

There is no understanding of where lines are or "queues" but if you guess wrong, and happen to be in a different aisle, rest assured that the college age boy will RUN in front of you and your baby and again give you a look of utter distaste. This is not the first time.

I was in charge of a church dinner for the woman of our congregation, Jamie was out of town, Hadley had pink eye and I don't know any babysitters in my town or know anyone in different wards, obviously all the women I knew were attending so I packed her up in the ergo and hauled her around. I did all of my assignments and just took Hadley along for the ride...for my efforts I was rewarded with a comment of disappointment from the group in charge and a question of if Jamie could have planned his trip better. In the states Jamie rarely traveled and I had a support system, I didn't know what to tell her and ended up apologizing for something I could not control.

Again for another activity they wanted specific candy eggs, I told them if they gave me the name I could pick them up at my local store. She told me they were in a specific part of town and I told her I wasn't comfortable driving in that busy part of town (sometime the rules of areas are just "understood" because everyone grew up there, I do much better on the less populated country roads) but could pick up different easter candies I had seen. This again earned me a huge sigh and a grumbled...well, I can do it.... I did not love to drive in the states but never would have turned down something because I couldn't get there! Speaking of candy eggs I should add that the Cadbury Creme Eggs here are amazing - sooo much better!!

This wasn't meant to be a complaint list (well, maybe it was), just a taste of how culture can be a bit different and hard to fit in. This doesnt even cover the different words, sentence structure and culture references that you spend half your time trying to translate! I keep meaning to do posts about what it is like living here, I just never get around to it but I want to be able to remember. There are some great things, not so great things and we are learning a ton. I think I will have to do a positive pastry post to offset this negative one though!

Hadley is SO BIG!

We play a game where we ask Hadley "how big is Hadley?" and then hold her arms out and say "SO BIG!!" and it makes her laugh every time. And she really is so big!! I was reading my sister in laws blog the other day and she had posted pics of her son outgrowing his carseat. I realized that what I saw in the back of my car was suspiciously similar. We did some research and US carseats are approved for the UK but not the other way around (some kind of certification, I am sure they are both safe). So when Jamie was in the US he brought back a Britax carseat so she would have a bit more room. She has never loved her carseat but seems to enjoy the new one and facing forward.

Newborn Hadley, so tiny!

(we borrowed a good friends carseat for the first few weeks while mine was on order)

13 months, poor thing is smooshed!

At one year I took her to the "health visitors centre", they don't do well baby checks and since they have significantly fewer immunizations they don't see a dr (only general practitioners) unless they are sick. Instead, there is a drop in clinic with a few nurses that you can go weigh your baby, ask questions and then when they do need shots you set up an appt with them. The girls here seem to like it but I really (really) miss having a pediatrician who I knew specialized in her care. We stopped by last week and she is 24.5 lbs and 30 3/4 inches which puts her in the 93% for both according to the American Pediatrics charts.