Regensburg & Landshut Adventure

We embraced the nicer weather prediction for the day and ventured out to explore more of Bavaria today!  We headed north east of Munich (the girls' first "real" train ride.  They were so excited.  In fact, Val said the train ride was one of her favorite parts of the day!  

Here's the crew, with the blue train behind them - the one we rode to start our journey.

 Cozy-ing up and eating some treats on the train...the first ride all the way to Regensburg was about an hour and 20 minutes.

 Regensburg is a picturesque little town, with some amazing shops and gorgeous architecture.  It was one of the few (if only) towns not desolated by WWII so the city center is UNESCO World Heritage Site.  The best feature to us, was St Peter's Cathedral.  Mass was just finishing as we approached the steps so we could here the amazing pipe organ before we entered...

 The girls loved climbing the stirs while we waited to enter.  (Notice throughout these pictures how Kate loves to "pose" for pictures... a cute newer development.)

 Aahhh... a kissing couple on the cathedral's facade...

 Further along, we came to a bridge... we've seen a few bridges in Germany with "love locks" on them.  This one had quite a few.  The girls are enamored with them.  You can read more about them here.

 I wish I'd taken a picture of the biergarten we ate lunch at... it was just across the bridge and had this fabulous little play area for the girls!  In fact, they didn't even sit down.  They ate their entire lunch of schnitzel and potato salad while playing. :)  (By the way, a biergarten or beer garden, isn't just for beer.  It generally refers to a restaurant with inside and outside seating.  The outside eating is more relaxed, you can even bring your own food (when purchasing a drink), and often times, there is a play area of some sort for the kids!

 Very cool painting of David and Goliath on a random building (coincidentally, right across the street is the Goliath Hotel).

 After perusing Regensburg, we headed back towards Munich, stopping at Landshut (pronounced, Lands-hoot) along the way.  It is a lovely little town (once you get away from the train station).  The Church of St Martin is one of the feature sights.  It happens to have the tallest brick tower in the world!

 Up on the hill, overlooking the city and area beyond, is Trausnitz Castle, built in the 1500's.  It was a steep climb uphill to get there.  Kate made part of the journey like this...

 Then she moved to the stroller so Elsie made her journey like this...

 Micah ended up carrying Val (and a heavy backpack) up the stairs, while I pushed Kate and carried Elsie around a road and up a bike path.  I had thought earlier in the day that I might go for a run when we got home this evening, but after that hike, I changed my mind.  Sweaty and exhausted, we made it to the fortress walls and around the the castle for some amazing views that made it all worth it.

 Playing in the castle courtyard...

 Walking down the steep bike trail on the way back down...wish I could give a better perspective on just how steep this is!

Funny story from on the way home...it was quite the journey.  After riding the train back into Hauptbonhauf - Munich's main station, we took the underground U-Bahn train towards our "area," then switched to the tram to get us to our neighborhood.  There are screens indicating how many minutes till the next underground train as you head towards your platform.  Micah saw that we had just 1 minute to our train so we all got a move on it.  Unfortunately, negotiating escalators with a stroller isn't exactly speedy.  I had Elsie in the stroller, while Micah had the big girls by the hands.  They were quite a bit faster than me and I didn't make it on the train.  I waved to them as they took off from the platform....  The next train was only an 8 minute wait and I figured I'd just meet them at the tram - or at home.  However, 2 stops later, I see the 3 of them watching for me.
Val's eyes were red from crying.  She hops on the train, gives me a big hug and says, "Mom, I had an outburst!!  We just couldn't leave you behind!!!"
Poor thing was a bit traumatized by the whole adventure so we used it as a opportunity to talk about "emergency" situations and how to get help.  In the end, she calmed down and started smiling again.  But she didn't let go of my hand - or the stroller until we were safely back home together. :)

Great idea I borrowed from Pintrest: Using alphabet and number beads, the girls made necklaces (with a little help from me) that have their name and my cell phone number (including country code) on it.  That way if they ever do get lost, they can find help and call my phone.  Because they used colorful beads in between the important ones, and because they made it themselves, they LOVE to wear them whenever we go out!