Frohe Ostern!

"Frohe Ostern" means "Happy Easter" in German!

I bet you didn't know that the Easter Bunny originated in Germany.  (Here he is known as the Osterhase, which means Easter Hare).  The Germans were some of the earliest people to dye Easter eggs, too.

So going with tradition, we dyed our eggs.  (Okay, so we used an American PAAS Easter egg dying kit from the commissary, but still...)

 

An interesting German tradition is an Easter Fountain.  That is where they put lots of (plastic) eggs on a fountain or a well (the water is turned off) for Easter. 

 

 

This is the Easter fountain that is in our town.

 

There are spring flowers hanging on this one, too.

 

The two pictures below are the two most interesting eggs on the whole fountain.  They have a pipe-cleaner chicken inside!

 

It was a brisk 32 degrees this morning (and snowed later on...)  But it felt kind of nice compared to how cold it has been lately, so that is why we don't look too cold without coats.

 

Kieran is very excited about his Kinder Eggs he got (as you can see.)

 

I'm so excited that I got a yo-yo in my Easter basket!

 

No, REALLY!  I'm excited!!

 

And, you know...of course there is chocolate...

 

The most important part about Easter in Germany (besides getting yo-yos):

 

Maya's Official Guide on

How to tell the difference between

a Kinder Egg (Uberraschung) and

a Kinder Joy

 

 

Please note that you will NOT find these in your local American grocery store because they are ILLEGAL.  Seriously.  You can't even mail them to your friends in the U.S.  They are THAT dangerous.  They have a big tube in the middle filled with toys. Oh no!  You might be so dumb that you would try to EAT the toys and it can kill you.  (Do NOT eat toys, people!)  Apparently Americans eat too many toys.  So you will have to come to Germany if you ever want to taste the difference between a Kinder Egg and a Kinder Joy.

 

So, on the left you have a Kinder Uberraschung (commonly known as a Kinder Egg.)  Uberraschung means "surprise" in German, so it really should be called a Kinder Surprise.  (Actually if we're getting technical, it should be translated as a "Childen Surprise" since Kinder means Children.) 

 

AND on the right we have a Kinder Joy. 

 

The first difference you will notice is the wrapper on the Kinder Egg is tin-foil.  It peels away easily, as demonstrated by Kieran.

 

Next you break apart the chocolate egg, and for SAFETY REASONS you pull out the large YELLOW tube that contains toys that you might choke and die on.

 

Now it is safe to eat your chocolate.

 

Warning: Please fully remove the tube or else you might bite into it.

 

When you are done with your chocolate, you may now open your large yellow tube.

 

SURPRISE!!!  (That's the surprise part of the Kinder Surprise!)

 

Pull out all items in the tube, including the German-only instructions (don't worry, the pictures are usually more informative than the typical Happy Meal toy instructions).  Make sure you aren't eating chocolate while you do this, or else you might accidentally eat part of your toy and choke and die.

 

Kieran successfully built this complicated stamper ring (even without dying!)  And he's only six!

 

Now to enjoy your Kinder Joy.  First you notice that this egg has a plastic shell, so you can easily break it open.  It has two separate sections, and a flat spoon in the middle.

 

First proceed to open the side with the question mark cover.  This will reveal your toy!

 

Lay out all pieces of the toy before you start to build your toy.

 

I built a self-propelled ski-boat with a rubber band that twists up.

 

Then proceed to open the other half of your egg.  This is the JOY part!

You will find two large chocolate wafer balls surrounded by creamy chocolate nutella-ish spread.

 

Proceed to pick up your spoon (careful not to swallow it...you could choke and die!) and enJOY!

 

Are you still reading this?  What are you still doing here?  Go away!  I want to eat my Kinder Joy in peace!

 

Happy Easter!!

 

Sonnenschein

"Sonnenschein" means Sunshine in German!  Yesterday we had sun!  It was such a nice day that my parents decided to go to Bamberg, which is about an hour away from our house.

 

Kieran decided he was too cool for the sun so he wore his sunglasses all day.

 

 

Get ready for another dramatic picture of locks!  If you think this is a lot of locks, check out the whole bridge...

 

 

And this is only one side of it.

 

 

Fruit.  Yeah.  Enough said.

 

The fruit was in the open market in the town square.

 

 

This is a statue of a guy with his hair and forehead....missing...and dramatic picture of buildings in the background. (The church is called St. Michaels).

 

 

 

 

Here is the Rathaus.  Every German city has a Rathaus.  (It is the town hall.)

 

This is the view from the front of the Rathaus.

 

 

Kieran was bored and wanted to sit on every single bench that we found.  We soon turned it into a "Ninja Training" game.  This is his best ninja face.

 

 

Here is up close at St. Michael's Church and monastery at the top of the hill.

 

The grounds at the church were mushy from the melting snow.

 

 

We could see the whole city from up there.

 

 

There is another church we stopped at.  This one is called the "Dom Bamberg" or Cathedral of St. Peter and St. George.

 

 

Here is what it looked like on the inside.

 

 

Pope Clement II is buried there.

 

There was a historical museum next to the cathedral which supposedly has such relics as the knee socks of Pope Clement II, but we decided to pass.

 

Instead we headed back to the market and bought lunch of bratwurst from the street carts.  (When my mom and dad asked Kieran what his LEAST boring part of the day was, he said it was buying the sausage.)

 

As we walked back through the market on our way back to the car we saw the flower vendors.  The tulips and daffodils are a good sign that spring is on the way soon.

 

 

 

Vidím Nevidím

"Vidím nevidím" means "As Far As I See" in Czech.

 

While we were in Prague we took the metro, but to get to the station you have to cross the street and be careful because there are lots of trolleys.

 

 

When we finally got to the station we went down a long escalator.

 

And then you wait.

 

And wait (if you just barely missed the last train.) 

 

Until you can feel the wind coming down the tunnel. 

 

On Sunday we found our church.  It was in Czech, but there was other Americans there and they translated it into English too.

 

We went to go see a show at the Prague National Theater called "Vidím nevidím" or "As Far as I See."  Everything was in Czech, so we think it was about a little girl who was born blind and how she saw the world using her hands and when she was old enough she had a surgery so she could see.  I thought it was pretty creative and we able to understand what was happening most of the time. 

 

Then we walked back to the metro.  We saw all the buildings and the castle lit up at night.

 

Even our hotel was lit up!

 

We also went to the zoo, but we didn't take any pictures.  (It was colder that day and too cold to hold a camera without gloves.)  My favorite animal there was something called a "Bush Dog."  One of them would run around in a circle and when it got to this plant, it would stop, fall over, get up and do another lap. 

 

Kieran's favorite thing in Prague was the zoo. My favorite thing in Prague was the Castle and the guards.  Come and visit and I will take there....anctually, I will take you to Neuschwanstein Castle first, but if we have time I'll take you to Prague.