Collin Condray’s Blog

Just to get it out of the way, yes, you do say it that way, and no you can’t do it there.

The Black Forest is well known for its tourism. One of the more popular places near Freiburg to visit is Lake Titisee. We had absolutely gorgeous weather that day, and the region has had a lot of rain this year so everything was green, lush, and beautiful. You could hardly take a picture without it being good enough to appear on a postcard. On the north shore of the lake, there are many tourist attractions such as restaurants, hotels, gift shops (without a kitchy t-shirt in sight), a cuckoo clock shop, and ice cream stands.

The highlight of the day was taking the kids swimming. We did most of our swimming in a swimming pool and the kids had a great time there. After about an hour they got bored of the pool and wanted to get out. After they got out, they wanted to get back in. Instead of going back to the pool, we headed down to the lake which was about 4 degrees colder than the pool. The kids had more fun there because there were more “toys” in the lake. Sophia found a stick and we went “fishing”. I had her give her fish call “Neeemoooo!” and sure enough, we saw some pretty good sized fish swim by (man she’s good!). When the fish were close enough, Sophia would smack the water with her stick. We didn’t catch anything though. Liam picked up just about every rock he could get his hands on. He would throw them to make the biggest splashes he could make and giggle maniacally every time and do it again.

Since our kids are young and Asian, they have what is called Mongolian Spots, which are deposits of extra pigment along their backs. However, if you don’t know what they are, look like bruises and are visible when wearing swimsuits. Usually, we carry around descriptions of what they are in English and German but about halfway through our swim, we realized we forgot to bring them with us. Thankfully, the kids looked like they were having a good time and were loved, so no one reported us for child abuse.

After cleaning up from swimming, we had some Gelato which is everywhere (Heidelberen or blueberry for me), and met back up with Horst, Baerbel, Gramma, and Pop Pop. We took a boat ride around the lake and the kids promptly passed out. On the far side of the lake is another scenic hotel and a huge camping area that was filled up with vacationers.

If you’re ever vacationing in the Black Forest, definitely make sure that you visit Lake Titisee and bring your bathing suit.

As usual, you can see pictures in my Flickr photostream. Let me know if you need access to the friends and family pictures.

Next post, more family, more food (kinda like here).

Today we checked out of our hotel, and I cannot say how happy I am with the ArtHotel Munich. The rooms were modern, spacious, close to the main train station, and inexpensive (for Munich). Most importantly, they had excellent customer service and never laughed at all the stuff the crazy Americans were carrying.

Additionally, they also have an awesome breakfast buffet with a million kinds of rolls, cheeses, meats, and cereals. The coffee is void black and wonderful, and they have Johannisbeer (black currant) and peach-carrot juices on tap. The latter sounds kind of weird, but it is very good.

Free wifi was included at the hotel after getting a PIN from the main office, which brings me to a quirk about Germany: I have yet to come across any free wifi in Germany. It’s very strange when you go from a country like America that has free wifi at lots of places such as coffeehouses and cheap fast food places like Chick-Fil-A to a place where everything is locked down. Because of this, I’ve learned my phone is almost completely useless without the internet. I keep turning it on, flipping through my list of internet aps that I usually use and flipping it off. I actually have to talk to the people who are physically present. It’s a completely bizarre state of affairs that I hope you never have to endure.

T-Mobile has a plan that lets you use any of their hotspots for 29 euros ($45) for 30 days or 7.99 euros ($12) for 60 minutes, which was a very strange deal. The first train we took today had one of those hotspots but the price was way to high for the few hours we were going to be on a train.

Traveling by train was for the most part a pleasure; it’s nice not having to drive. A train has more room, you can move around, get snacks, and this train was a lot more comfortable than a plane. We passed some fantastic scenery even though it was raining. I didn’t manage to get any good shots from the train, though, because I had it set to the wrong setting, but here’s what I took.

The downside of traveling was since we had to take so much stuff with the kids, we had every available hand tasked to carry or pull something. I’m sure all the Germans were staring in wonder at all the junk that we were carrying. Next time the kids will hopefully be older and won’t need as much gear to travel with.

At some point, Uncle Horst and Aunt Gisela picked us up, but the rest of the day is a blur of traveling and trying to wrestle the kids back to bed. They’ve got good instincts, but I’m a pretty tough close-in fighter at this sort of thing.

Tomorrow, Lake Titisee (yes, you read that right).

I take it back; the Germans are not as crazy as I thought. It’s normal hot today, and everybody is wearing shorts, but I don’t see a lot of sandals, which is weird considering we’re in the land of Birkenstock.

Once again we got up early and headed back to Aunt Agnes’ house in Stockdorf. And here are a few pictures of Aunt Agnes’ and her cooking. What’s on the menu? Knoedel (dumplings) with pork gravy. Good eating!

I’m always interested in what people are drinking in other countries. Whenever I’m in Asia, its fun to play vending machine roulette (see my winnings here and here). but other than beer in the vending machines, you can get the same stuff as we have in American vending machines. However, make sure that you grab one of these drinks while you’re over her, I highly recommend them. Be careful of the Apfel cider, its in the same bottle a several other kinds of non-alcoholic drinks and it has a little alcohol in it (only 2.5%). I was a couple of gulps into it before I realized it.

Since our kids are adopted from Korea and we’re not Asian, we’re getting a lot of confused double takes. Only 1% of kids adopted in Germany are from Asia so we’re fairly unusual. It’s been pretty funny to watch the cognitive dissonance when people try to figure out the story of our family. The first look is usually a quick one between us and the kids. Then there’s a longer second look usually with a very puzzled expression but occasionally with a quiet smile (because my children are, of course, the cutest kids in the world).

We spent the rest of the day just hanging around the house, talking, drinking coffee, and watching the kids play. Apparently, the kids don’t really need toys. They’re more than happy to play with a lawn full of rocks of various sizes. Christmas is going to be easy to shop for this year.

Finally, make sure that you check out this trip’s photostream.

Tomorrow, riding on a train!