Winter Into Spring, Denmark into Germany

Let’s get caught up on the last few weeks with as little text as possible.

Worth mentioning: the snow covered the earth for almost the entire winter in Værløse, from late December to mid-March. It was a joy to see the last few remnants washed away in some heavy spring rains… it had been so long that there were still New Year’s Eve firework remnants all over the streets: they’d been buried all winter.

Even regularly clueless Maddie knew something was different outside.

We didn’t manage to get ourselves fully loaded and strapped into the car until about 9pm Friday evening. The girls were awake but sleepy. Maddie fell asleep before we even got on the highway; Molli Malou watched the first 30-45 minutes of the Princess and the Frog before conking out. We just made it over Storebælts bridge when the rain started, and it was torrential for hours — we were hundreds of miles into Germany before it tapered off.

The girls woke now and then but were pretty easily appeased until about 6am, by which time we were about 50 miles south of Kassel. We pulled into a little town boasting a McDonalds and went excitedly in for what we hoped would be a fabulous Mickey Ds breakfast. But the menu was all wrong, there was no German efficiency to be had, and we were happy to be out of there an hour later. The sun was finally up, so I took some shots of our weary travelers:

Seven hours later we arrived in Feldafing.

The Chicken Pox had blossomed en route:

Molli Malou had had a tough night of it: she’d been running a fever before we left and complained of stomach aches intermittently through the trip. Once we arrived, though, she reverted to her sunny self and took a few pictures.

And was not at all shy about getting to know Flash.

High, winding, twisty stairs! What could be more fun for a girl who only learned to walk a month ago?

Yeah, like I’m gonna let her keep going in this direction:

Flash!

Saturday was pretty much lost to me: I barely remember arriving. I muddled along for an hour or so, ate a little lunch, showered, passed out for a couple of hours, then we all had dinner and went to bed early.

Sunday we were a little livelier and got to take a nice long walk in the nearby park. It runs alongside the lake, and there’s an old golf course sprawling along it. Trine told me Hitler himself was known to have golfed here, but there were no signs advertising the fact. Go figure.

I like to think this skateboard platform was built on Hitler’s command. The image of one of history’s worst villains skateboarding on this platform is too comic to delegate to fiction. As far as I’m concerned, this is Der Fuehrers Skateboardplatz.

The Alps are visible across the lake, but it was hard to get them to show up in pictures where there was anything going on in the foreground.

They’re slightly visible here.

And here.

“Danger: golfballs gonna mess you up.”

Maddie has just had her first view of the Alps.

Behold.

This may end up as my screensaver:

Some history of the park from a sign posted by the dock where ferries take passengers out to Rose Island.

Maddie did a little walking along the way.

After all my Wagner research, I find myself so brimming with the history of the people and events of late 19th century Bavaria that signs like this are astonishing. I’ve only ever read about these people and places: it’s strange to see Empress Elizabeth used to market a hotel, and King Ludwig to pimp a beer.

Here’s a view of the house from across the street.

Now it’s Monday morning. Maddie gave me a hellish night, Flash has sprained or broken a paw (it was my horrifying misfortune to have opened the front door while he was lying in front of it, and apparently his foot got jammed under the door or something… it’s just awful and he’ll have to get to a vet today), bombs are going off in Moscow… I officially declare that this vacation will now officially begin getting better for everyone, everywhere, right…. NOW.