rot, orange, gelb, grün, blau, lila

"Rot, orange, gelb, grün, blau, lila," means, "Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple," in German!  

 

Fall!  If there is one thing that is different about Germany and Texas, it's Fall!

 

 

Fall in Bavaria is amazing.

 

You can see every color of the rainbow on leaves of the trees.

 

Except for blue, but you will see blue skies on a sunny day!

 

On one sunny day we went to the "Pink up the Pace" cancer awareness 5K run.

 

Kieran also had his first Rain Gutter Regatta for cub scouts.  He used nail polish to paint his boat. 

 

Here is the finished boat.

 

Ready to race!

 

They had to blow through a straw into the sail of the boats to make them go.

 

Here is Kieran and his best friend, Julian.

 

They are both crazy...and crazy about otters.  That must be why they are such good friends.

 

Not every Fall day in Bavaria is sunny.  Some are rainy.

 

The leaves are slowly falling off all the trees...

 

and soon it will be Winter.

 

Apple pie is good in Fall.  Especially the FRIED McDonald's pies they have here.  My parents say this is how they used to be in the States before they made all their pies "baked."  My verdict is I can never go back to the baked, because the fried are just too good!

 

Here are our Jack-o-lanterns.  Can you guess which one is Kieran's?  Yes, the Ninjago eyes...Mine is the owl.  My dad's is the bats.  My mom's is the cat.

 

We won for the best family costumes at my dad's clinic's Halloween bowling party.

 

Here we are on Halloween.  And what do you know - Kieran is the green Ninja from Ninjago!  I am Sally from the Nightmare Before Christmas.

 

A lot of German kids come trick-or-treating in our neighborhood because it's all Americans who live here and we pass out candy.  (Most of Germany hasn't caught on to trick-or-treating yet.)  It's a fun night!  The Germans have a holiday on November 1st that they celebrate instead called All Saint's Day.  All the stores are closed.

 

Trick-or-Treat!

Impressionnant, Genial, Ontzagwekkend!

"Impressionnant, Genial, Ontzagwekkend!" Means "Awesome, awesome, awesome" in French, German, and Dutch.

 

 AWESOME!  Floating shoes!  Something funny we saw in the colorful city of Ghent, Belgium!

 

 

We walked through rows of old buildings in Ghent.

 

Here is the inside of one!  Cool rafters!

 

In the middle of the city, there is a castle!  How AWESOME is that?

 

Gravensteen Castle was built in 1180.

 

We took the self-guided tour.

 

And we saw a sword that was taller than Kieran! AWESOME!

 

And here is a suit of armor.  The armor was only a little bigger than the sword!

 

Dramatic view from the top of the castle.

 

Kieran pretended he was shooting arrows through the little holes.

 

All hail Kieran, King Otter!

 

And his royal assistant, Maya.  (We know who holds the REAL power in this kingdom.)

 

Anyone see a giant plus sign?  Really big?

 

 

 

After we saw the castle, we went to see Kieran's REAL kingdom....Otterland!

 

Actually, we went to Sea Life in Blankenberg, Belgium.  We arrived just in time for otter feeding time!  They had lots of cool fish to see there.

 

My favorite thing was the Disco Jellyfish room. 

 

There were lots of jellyfish floating in cylindrical tanks, with disco lights flashing and music playing.

 

Purple, red, orange! AWESOME!

 

So cool!

 

And on a totally different note, we ask you to turn off the disco music and begin to play your Gregorian chants.  So here are the ruins of an old Abbey in Villers-la-Ville, Belgium.

 

It had no roof.

 

...and lots of arches...

 

...and cool windows...

 

It was old and way cooler without a roof.  Because if it had a roof, it would be all dark and gloomy inside. 

 

But instead, it was light inside.

 

...and...

 

...it was...

 

AWESOME!!!

 

We both liked it.

 

See...this part still had a roof...and it was dark and gloomy.

 

But this part was light and AWESOME!

 

Light and AWESOME!

 

Yay for no roofs!

 

Okay, the roof was pretty cool, too.

 

But this is WAY cooler!  In Luxembourg (a small country between France, Belgium, & Germany) they have parking areas reserved for ladies!  How AWESOME is that?

 

This is the City Hall in Luxembourg City, which (surprisingly) is the Capitol if Luxembourg.

They speak German, French, and Luxembourgish in Luxembourg.  Sorry, we could not find a translation of "Awesome" in Luxembourgish. 

 

Here is the Royal Palace.

 

You can see the Luxembourg flag here.  Look carefully and you can see a strange man's face in the black light post.

 

If you look on the building above the gate, you will see another freaky face carved into the stone.

 

There is a really cool walk-way along the gorge where you can see the river and city below.

 

You can see the old fortifications of the city walls.

 

Here is a cool church in the valley!  Too bad it has a roof!

 

Well, that's it for Belgium and Luxembourg.  Aren't they AWESOME?

 

 

 If you or someone you know speaks Luxembourgish, please let me know what "Awesome" translates to.