Frankfurt am Main Swim Meet

We have to start out by saying how proud we are of Jacoba and Ruby. They have both been getting up early twice a week to go to swim practice before school. That's tough when is wintery, cold and dark outside, they normally get to the pool between 6:30-6:45 a.m. All of their hard work paid off over the weekend of January 27th, the Dresden International School participated in a swim meet with 7 other international schools, they came from as far as Copenhagen and it was an exciting 2 days of competition. The Dresden IS came in 1st place for boys & girls varsity!! Ruby shaved off 7 seconds from one of her times-and at one point in a boys relay, our team was in last place and through some major hard work, they ended up coming in second, it was an amazing 60 seconds to watch from poolside.











This is all due to being part of the King's Charter Swim Team. It was perfect for getting the girls started in this great sport, we love that the girls can work on improving their individual times but also be part of a fantastic team. When Ruby first started swimming with the KC Swim Team, she told us she didn't want to compete, well that lasted for about one day...both girls are greatly improving with their strokes, turns and times, WAY TO GO!!

A trip to the Neighborhood Erotic Bakery

Why doesn't every neighborhood have one of these? I think Krispy Kreme and Starbucks could really learn something from this place. On occasion we will go pick up some larger items at the grocery store on a Saturday morning (because otherwise Jackie gets to carry it on the bus, we make very good shopping choices dependent on how it will get taken home...)anyway, we leave Jacoba & Ruby at home and grab a quick cup of coffee or cocoa before we dash into the frenzied store. All stores are closed here on Sundays and thus makes for much craziness on Saturdays.

Back to the sleazy bakery. We didn't really notice it the first time but since a couple of repeat visits we found their murals to be rather unusual for a bakery. Does eating their pastries make you want to strip down naked and worship the pastry?




Apparently, the location of this shopping center was once the office headquarters for the Nazi's many years ago. The original building was destroyed and this new area was developed. Ron recently finished reading a book called Dresden that had lots of interesting information in it, perhaps we can get him to post a blog about his book.




I thought perhaps it is a front for some other type of business, but they wouldn't hide that, it is all visible for the public to view. They aren't bashful when it comes to certain things, that is for sure.

Routine Behavior for the Dynamo

Just a couple of photos from the Hauptbahnhof in Dresden, we live about 5-6 blocks away from this train station and last Saturday we were absolutely freaked out by all the police presence.

Ron saw them 4 deep and 4 wide and wearing full riot gear. What we learned is that on that particular day, the Dynamo Soccer team was playing and this is just no big deal.

We have also since learned that should we ever decide to go to a soccer game we should sit in the "familie platz" and no one will bother you.

Elbe River Rising

We ventured out the Sunday before last to catch a glimpse of the talk of the town. Everyone in Dresden had the same idea. For the past week the Elbe River had been rising very rapidly. These are just a few photos near the Schillergarten and Blau Wonder Bridge. There were other Bier Garten locations that were removed from the riverside by crane and fortunately improvising tents were set up for last Sunday's spectacle, at least you could still get a brat and a cold one! That is thinking ahead.

We are relived to say things have calmed back down and all the hullabaloo is all over. And, you can order your brat and bier just like old times.

Meet Kelsey

Ruby was fortunate to participate in a special program last year during school, it allowed her to take lessons from another student and study guitar. She really enjoyed it and her teacher, Ethan was awesome, he and Ruby became the best of buds. Prior to that Ruby had wanted a guitar for a long time and we weren't really certain that she would want to continue her interest in it, fortunately we didn't need to invest in purchasing a guitar because Santa brought her one. She continued to play her guitar and was very excited when our container of household goods arrived in Germany and she could have her guitar to play again.

Two weeks ago Ruby was able to pick up again with her lessons, she has a 45 minute lesson once a week after school, her teacher, Mrs. Schneidewind is teaching Ruby all about classical guitar.

This past Saturday it was time to go find Ruby a new guitar, she had outgrown her beginner guitar. We visited a local shop in the Neustadt and tested out some guitars, she selected this pretty three quarter sized guitar by Manuel Romero. Because all great musians name their guitars Ruby needed a name and she came up with it immediately. Here is how...



Last summer we were fortunate to meet the incredible Henry family that had been traveling across country, they were staying at the Marriott hotel that Jackie was working at. Their amazing young daughter, Kelsey, played guitar and wrote her own music. She really inspired Ruby to continue learning guitar and a couple of times they played guitar together, it was so sweet. Kelsey has her first official CD out and Ruby loves it! So, naturally Ruby HAD to name her guitar, Kelsey!

Our Tradition-New Year's Day Hike

For many years our family has had the tradition to go for a hike on New Year's Day. It is a great way to clear your head after staying up too late and reflect on what events shaped our year and to look forward to the year ahead. We started this tradition when the girls were really young and it reminds me of our hikes in the beautiful Colorado Rockies. Hard to imagine that we are on the other side of the world now in an incredible, scenic city, Dresden.



During our Cultural Training, our instructor, Antonio (from Spain...but married to a local Dresdener) shared with us an area that you could hike on New Year's Day that would bring you good luck for the year if you went there, naturally we could not pass up this opportunity. We actually did this hike in October with gorgeous fall colors and we knew we'd have to come back on New Year's Day.



There are 365 steps that ascend to a panoramic view of the Dresden area. For every step it equals a day of good luck. The treat is at the top where you enjoy amazing scenery and delicious hot cocoa from one of our favorite restaurants, The Spitz Haus. On the hike up you are surrounded by vineyards and lovely wineries and homes. What we didn't take into account was the amount of snow and ice after a very, early and substantial winter...it was "slicker than snot".

We were able to share this activity with some wonderful friends, also new to the area, the Lewis family from California. Our kids have become close through swim team and the international school, and we've enjoyed spending time together, amazed at continuously finding similar interests. We keep saying, "Oh, you like that, too?"


After our adventure of getting back down the hillside, we had a great picnic in the snow, even Frosty had fun. Bottom line: guaranteed good luck for everyday this year! It's a win-win!

East European Holiday Travels

We returned from our trip Sunday the 26th and got home just fine. We had no troubles getting to our destinations or home, thankfully. Many of Ron's collegues had a difficult time because of weather here in Europe and in the States. Many lost luggage, had to switch to trains, etc. it was just a nightmare for many. We really lucked out. Here is a brief summary of our trip.

Prague: We are only about 2 hours away and traveling there by train was super. On arrival we all had to go to the restroom at the train station, a bathroom attendent snagged approx. $10 worth of Krooners from me, which burned me to no end.

Ron said to let it go and "chill", so I did but what made me so angry is that a friend here had told me about this experience and how it happened to her too, so I had been warned... Thus we started our adventure and went to find our hotel. Some highlights, well, we stumbled upon an art exhibit called "Play", that we decided to visit, it was all hands on with all sorts of old pipes, piano makings, blocks, noisemakers...I really can't describe it, photos will have to do. Or Google Petr Nikl & spol. It is worth looking up. We went to a music concert of wonderful, famous pieces-it was performed in an old theater called the Municipale House-art nouveau, just gorgeous.




We visited Dvorak & Smetana's graves, castles, cathedrals...the list goes on. At the completion of our time there we returned to the train station to continue our trip only to find that we had a different train time and we had a couple of extra hours to kill. SO, I did what every annoyed american does, be bold & bossy - I went back to the restroom with the "thief" attendent and got a picture of her with me! She owed me this! Now we have a great story to share with illustration.












Budapest: Old, gorgeous and huge, we thoroughly enjoyed our time here. Two million people live there and they do an amazing job of shuttling people around with the oldest underground subway in Europe! Can you imagine? The architecture in this city is incredible, if you do restoration work, there is always going to be a demand for it there. It is easy to see that this city struggled through many long years of hard times, some buildings are losing their architectural elements but are still being used even though they are not restored. Every building is different, unique and has a story behind it, which we learned when we took a "Hop On, Hop Off" City tour, due to the fact that it was very cold, rainy, and totally socked in with fog. It was a bummer because our hotel room was on the 13th floor with an awesome view, which we got a glimpse of the morning we left...Really, really fabulous food in this city, most accomodating for Ron's vegetarian requests, and a nice treat was the amount of friendly people that spoke English, even older generations. One highlight, visiting an OLD, art nouveau bath house, it was heavenly, the water was so warm and felt so good after being out in the cold wintery weather. Also, we visited an indoor market in this huge building and we saw all sorts of produce, seeds/beans, nuts, spices, seafood, meats, breads....it was really cool. We can only really imagine the gorgeous backdrop this city offers, with the Danube and hillsides it is beautfiul. We got a small taste of it at night when the buildings were lit up and they would show better through the fog. We also enjoyed Gerbeaud's and I will tell anyone going there that they are crazy if they don't go to this place. This is a famous coffee house that all the celebrities visit, but their chocolate creations are amazing. Right in front of Gerbeaud's we enjoyed the Christmas market.




























Vienna: Our hotel was across the street from the #1 Sex Shop in town, not #3 or 4, but #1! We lucked out. Seriously, our hotel was charming and perfect, it wasn't in a bad neighborhood, these shops, advertisements and establishments are everywhere in Europe, mixed in with the normal routine of the day. Our kids don't even really notice them anymore. We arrived there on Christmas Eve and visited the Christmas Market, which was marvelous. Germany is known for their Christmas Markets and they all have a special twist on their idea of what they should be. (For example, in Dresden, we have a Medieval one that is in the stables of the old palace and it is all lit with candles, etc.) Anyway, the 24th is a bigger holiday than the 25th there so we found a great little restaurant for dinner and then headed back to the hotel, we had to put out some socks in hopes that Santa knew his way to Austria. That night Ruby woke us all up at 1:15 am to let us know that in fact, Santa does know his way to Austria...we convinced her to go back to bed until 6:30 in the morning but she never actually slept... On Christmas day we visited the Mozart House where he lived for 3 years and wrote some of his major pieces of music, it was fantastic. We also did another "Hop On, Hop Off" tour because it was windy and starting to snow, we saw some great areas and decided we wouldn't mind going back there someday. We visited St. Stephens Cathedral just next to Mozart's house, it was in the gothic style and huge. The Danube there is beautiful and they have more recreational areas surrounding it. Clearly Austria had the money to maintain their buildings and there were also many major new skyscrapers and businesses there.






















We had the best time, this was one of the first vacations like this since we went to Disneyland, which was over 4 years ago. It was so fun to visit other countries, hear other languages, try other foods and be in a completely different environment. We learned that if you learned Czech or Hungarian you could really score some major points playing Scrabble because of all the Z's, J's, H's, etc. in their languages, we feel that they have way too many unnecessary constants & vowels. AND, we are so glad to be learning German instead of either of those two languages. What a treat to take this trip, we are slowly achieving our goal of showing the kids as much of Europe as we can. I have posted more pictures on Facebook to share with all, if you are on FB.


The next adventure is for Jacoba, she left yesterday morning for one week of skiing in Kossen, Austria, it is for a PE requirement.

Happy New Year

We have wrapped up the holiday season and enjoyed a magnificent vacation and we are ready to start off the year with a bang! We hosted a casual potluck dinner at our house on New Year's Eve and had about 8 families attend. There was marvelous food and our kids all got together and planned out impromptu skits for entertainment, we've got some talent in this group, and no stage fright.

At around 11 p.m. we lit sparklers from the terrace and afterwards ventured in to town to watch fireworks. What we didn't realize is that German people are crazy when it comes to fireworks and we now know why they only allow them to set off fireworks 4 days in a year. The locals will set off their own fireworks right in the middle of a crowd and pay no attention to what direction the fireworks shoot off to. It is SO scary. Add to the mixture some alcohol and you've got a big mess on your hands. We saw one firework fly through the air and land in the hood of a woman's coat on her back, a child holding one after he lit it and kept handing it to others until it finally fell down and people sticking their lit fireworks in the snow, regardless of the angle it was directed. Fortunately, no one was seriously hurt in our group, but Jacoba did get hit in the head and a couple of people got junk in their eyes...it was really creepy. We wished someone had warned us about how crazy it can get, but we will always remember the start of 2011 and it puts new meaning into, "start off with a bang", hmmm, we've heard that somewhere before...

The Taylor's First Day in Germany

8/24/2010 - We had been awake for almost 24 hours and it was the first thing in the morning in Dresden, Germany. Naps are a danger to successful navigation to a new time zone, so we went off in search of something to keep us awake.



Jacoba and Ruby were already starting school a week late, so that was one stress point. It was a new school and they didn’t know anyone - more stress. In a totally different country – yet more stress. My colleague, Judson Graham, and his family offered to help Jackie and the girls slide into life in Germany by meeting us on our first day and letting our girls meet their girls (twin 11 year olds – Taylor and Tyler). They seemed to have gotten along just fine, judging from the fact that we didn’t see them again until they got hungry.

We went to a BierGarten (naturally) and it was a marvelous summer day. This BierGarten was beside the Elbe River which runs through Dresden. The first photo shows a contemplative Judson with a river tour boat in the background. At this BierGarten is also a ferry across the river, and the other pictures are of the ferry. It was a delightful day with delightful new friends in a delightful new place.





The kids played along the riverbank and the Graham adults and the Taylor adults enjoyed a few beers, had some food and watched the world go by. Before too long, the sun was going down and we needed to get back to the hotel to get ready for the next day. It would be the first day of school for the jet-lagged girls, but at least they would have a pair of friends.

This picture shows the ferry heading for the other side of the Elbe River.








This is a picture of the ferry about to dock on the far side. There are several ways to get across the Elbe River in Dresden. There are 6 or 7 bridges across and a ferry or two.

On the river can be seen an occasional motorboat, rowing shells, canoes, kayaks and swimmers. There is a bike path on each side of the river, and the bicyclist and walkers are out enjoying the nice weather on a good day.

Bicycling is a terrific way to get around in Dresden. Bicycles have the same rights (and responsibilities) as automobiles on the roads and at intersections, and there are plenty of bike paths in the woods and along the roads. There are even specific crosswalk signs that include a logo for bicycles. It is a very bicycle-friendly city. Luckily, we brought out bikes with us.

The first day of school was not as traumatic as expected for the girls. Their school is the Dresden International School and it has 500 students from over 50 countries. It is a great experience for the girls.

The ride to the school was about 25 minutes by tram from the hotel. They even met some school buddies riding the tram. Jackie took them to school on the tram every day we were at the hotel.

By the way, public transportation in Dresden is also nothing short of spectacular. The primary modes of transportation are the trams and the busses, but a pass can include rides on a ferry, one of a couple of inclined railways and one of several trains. Jackie has become quite adept at negotiating the transit system to get where she needs to go. This is good, because she chose not to drive over here. Driving is intimidating – there are zillions of new and different road signs and some very alien rules for Americans (at unmarked intersections and in parking lots, cars on the right have the right-of-way).


Next - A castle or two...

Playing Blog Catch Up

Hello everyone out there in Blog Land. Things have been a little hectic lately and the blog has suffered. Now I will attempt to get it back in shape. Thanks for your patience.

At the end of August, Ron went back to Richmond to collect Jackie, Jacoba and Ruby and bring them to Germany. It was supposed to be a relaxing week visiting friends and sleeping late, but it didn't turn out completely that way. We did have a good time with our friends, but forget the relaxing part and the sleeping late part...

Our awesome neighbors threw us a cul-de-sac party as a going away, since we were leaving somewhat abruptly. It was terrific to get to see some of our Richmond friends before we left.

Since we were bringing our pets with us (Frosty, the dog, and Poncho, the parrot), there was some paperwork to deal with. It ends up that the dog was no trouble (no quarantine - just verification of rabies and a vet's clean bill of health), but the bird continued to be a nightmare.

The bird's visit to the vet was to get the final paperwork signed within two weeks of departure. This is the paperwork that Jackie had been on the phone for two hours with the German consolate to obtain. The vet signed off the paperwork because they had been to our house to observe Poncho's living conditions and to verify that there were no other birds living close enough to pass off bird diseases like avian flu. We're not going to even mention the gender determination test, the microchip implantation and the bird flu testing that were required to allow the bird to travel to Germany. After having this companion animal for almost 25 years, we now know that he is a she!

After the vet signed the paper, we were off to the USDA to get an export certificate. This is where the fun started. Not only had the German consulate given us the wrong form to complete, but there was another government form - USDA - that needed to be completed - and it normally takes 6 weeks to get it through the bureaucracy. Somehow we got all the paperwork completed with only hours to spare - thanks to our terrific vet and a very sympathetic USDA team.

Then Ron had to drive him (her) to DC to get an inspection on Friday, because we were leaving on a Saturday and the USDA doesn't work on Saturday, but the animal must be inspected by a USDA agent prior to departure.

Because of a domestic embargo on airline transportation of pets, we had to hire a limo to take Poncho and Frosty to DC again on Saturday (departure day). Ron rode in the limo and Jackie and the girls flew from Richmond and we met at Dulles. The pets were on Jackie's airline ticket and it was fun trying to get them onto the plane in DC when Jackie originated in Richmond and the pets were originating in DC.




The pets in Dulles airport in Washington DC waiting for our flight.

Our "stuff" in the hotel room - 16 bags plus a dog crate and a bird cage.

The flight took off on time, the pets were on board and we landed many hours later in Frankfurt. From the gate area in Frankfurt, we saw Frosty in his crate under the plane. Then we flew to Dresden - had a somewhat stressful few minutes while the German customs agents looked over the 16 suitcases, laptop bags, carry-ons and activity bags we brought along - as well as the papers for the pets - but we were cleared for arrival (PHEW!) and we walked through the customs gates to begin the next phase of our life adventure.

Next...GERMANY!