Detmold

It was another on-again, off-again rainy weekend. People in Bielefeld joke about how rain is completely unpredictable here - it can pop up unexpectedly and then stop five minutes later. Bielefeld is nestled in the Teutoburg Wald, which is the first real elevation the weather hits after passing over northern Germany, which is very flat. So the clouds let loose when they get here.

It's usually a pretty pleasant shower, so you can carry on with your normal activities. All the kids here seem to have a good set of rain gear, which includes jacket, pants (they look like snowpants with suspenders, only they aren't insulated), and rain boots. And all the baby strollers are outfitted with plastic rain covers. Us, we just let our kids get wet.These action shots are from our stroll to the market Saturday. Dave showed us how to turn the turntable by running on it. The pictures of me doing it are being withheld. Sunday afternoon, we took a regional train to Detmold, which is just a half hour from Bielefeld. Sam and Katie each got an Amerikaner at the train station bakery. It is fluffy cookie with half chocolate, half white frosting. Katie likes the chocolate half and Sam likes the vanilla half, so they have worked out a system where they each eat their favorite half of their cookie and then trade.There was a group of girls traveling on the same train who were having a jam session. They had a guitar and a flute (and a friend to turn the pages of their music book). They entertained the train with their renditions of such favorites as "The House of the Rising Sun," "Greensleeves," and "Morning has Broken."

Also on the same train was a nice young fellow from France who is teaching French at a private school in Detmold. He lives in Bielefeld and takes the train to work each day. He told me that the public transportion system in France is nowhere near as friendly to families as the German system. In Germany, you can pretty much get anywhere with a stroller - trains, busses, trams. We have only encountered a couple of places where we needed to carry the stroller up stairs. There are escalators and elevators everywhere. The French fellow said it is not so in Paris. Makes me grateful our European excursion has been in such a family friendly place.Detmold is cute as a button. From the moment we stepped off the train, we were enjoying the town. It is very well-taken-care-of and delightful to walk around.We found this playground almost immediately. It is situated in a gorgeous park filled with beautiful trees and monuments to warriors from wars that we didn't recognize. The playground was right behind this church.These trees made for perfect forts under their cascading branches.The underneath view of those cascading trees reveals that their limbs are supported by a network of cables.Isaac has discovered his two fingers. He's starting to find them more regularly, rather than gnawing on his entire hand. He is our first kid that always likes to have something in his mouth.Grace was tuckered out after the playground. She is doing some great things lately. On the playground, when we were swinging together, I didn't need to hold onto her - she held the chains of the swing by herself! And last night, she was playing in the entryway by where we keep the shoes, and she picked up her shoe and repeatedly tried to put it on her foot! Sounds like a silly thing to get excited about, but I've never seen her make that connection between an object and its most common purpose. Very exciting!Detmold is celebrating a major anniversary of when Hermann the Great helped lead the Saxons to vanquish the Romans from the Westphalian region in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. As part of that celebration, there was a traveling exhibit which had this rowboat on the canal behind the Duke's castle in Detmold for folks to try their hand at an old way of transport. People could buy tickets to get on the boat and learn some rowing skills from the master captain. He whipped those greenhorns into shape mighty quickly - while we were watching they got good enough to move the boat at a pretty good clip.Here's the captain of the vessel. Doesn't he make you think conquering Germanic warrior?On the castle grounds. The Duke of Detmold still has considerable influence in the region. The castle sits in the middle of the town, and the grounds are open to the public. We saw people strolling, playing bocce ball, and throwing frisbees to their dogs, all in the castle gardens. We saw pictures of the inside of the castle. It looks incredibly opulent. Tours (in German) are given every hour, but the two youngest were asleep in the stroller at the time. Katie was pretty disappointed not to go in.The streets of Detmold are lined with one neat looking building after another, many with intricate carvings and colorful architectural decorations.We stopped for a snack at a local restaurant. While waiting for our food, Dave and Sam played a good game of "Which Hand is the Coin in?"I can't tell you exactly what it is I ordered, only that is a specialty of the area. Near as I can figure out, it was a puffy raisin pancake made with potato flour. It was served with a rich berry sauce and the requisite piece of wurst on the side. It was tasty.This building was on the square where we ate. It looked particularly nice decked out with flowers in every window.On the way home, Dave had a brilliant idea - have the older kids push the stroller! We get relieved of the pushing and they get something to entertain them on the walk home. Grace wasn't so sure about the new system, but we all made it home in one piece. Another wonderful day.