The Spreewald

Sixteen days in Germany can not be done in one blog post, so the next few blog posts will be dedicated to some of the more fabulous places we got to go! Even though we didn't get to the Spreewald till toward the end of our trip I am posting it first due to the sheer awesomeness of it.
My family lives is Lubben, a town about one and a half hours south east of Berlin in what was once the former East Germany. The thing that makes Lubben famous is that The Spreewald, a series of small waterways branching off from the Spree river and winding their way through the forest, is there. It is tradition when we go to take a boat ride on one of the long flat bottomed boats. You can take a tourist boat through the more widely traveled area and see a great deal for a few hours, or you can be lucky like we were and get to go on a private boat for a 5 hour tour and then get lost and end up spending 9 wonderful hours in this beautiful place, and one freezing hour as we tried to find our way back before dark. So yes, we got the 10 hour tour and for the most part it was amazing.
I say for the most part one because of the last cold hour when the kids who had done awesome most of the day (especially since half way through we found a restaurant in the middle of the wetlands and had some very tasty ice cream) started getting tired and hungry. And because of the mosquitoes. With a little bug spray and wearing our windbreakers we were saved from them mostly, but there was that incident when after about 5 hours there needed to be a bathroom break and our only option was a swampy side bank. Lets just say that it is hard to slap away bugs and pee at the same time and leave it at that. If you want to hear the whole story I will admit it with a red face, but not in writing!!!
So here are my pictures of The Spreewald. It was breathtaking. Enjoy!!!

Writing in Berlin

I can't believe that in no time at all I will be living out the title of my blog. I really will be writing in Berlin, and Munich, and Luben, and Dresden, and Potsdam, and....well you get the point. I am so excited to be taking Minchkin and Squishie Pie on their first German (and Austria, and Switzerland) trip. We will be flying into Berlin and then driving about an hour and a half south to stay with family in Lubben. The next day we will be driving to Munich (10 hour drive, I know we are crazy). Down south we will go see Munich, the Black Forrest, the Castles, the Rhein Falls, and several other sights before making our way back to Berlin. We will have a one night stay in Dinkelsbuhl so we can watch the town cryer sing the town to sleep and then it is back to Lubben to take day trips to Berlin, Dresden, Potsdam, and just visit with family. The girls are so excited to go.
I am excited too, but walking with Pooh Bear to Joy school today I realized that I am going to miss my boys terribly. Yep this is a girls only trip with my mom and my sister. The boys will have fun Daddy-Pooh Bear times while we are gone, but I am going to be thinking about them a lot!
One thing I debated on was taking my book to work on. I mean I will be in Germany, it is not like I will have a lot of time to write, but at writer's group this week I made a goal of adding another 7,500 words to SKY and so I decided that the book comes. I am also going to be doing some research for two other book I have in the idea stage. One is a fairy tale retelling and we will be visiting a lot of old castle ruins to inspire that one. The other is a story about East Germany and what life was like before the wall came down. Most of my research on that will be interviewing my relatives. They all grew up behind the wall.
So I have a full plate coming up. Until then there is soccer and house work to keep me organized. I finished the semester with two A's and one A-, so I am happy with that. Minchkin's team is ripping it up on the boys league. Those poor boys thought playing girls would be easy. Now they see them coming and they turn and run the other way! Both Squish and Bear are doing good as well in the Rec league. So that is what we are up to. If I don't get around to another post before we leave (which knowing me is very likely) then I will for sure have a gazillion pictures to post when we get back. Until then just know that this Berlin will be Writing in Berlin!!!